


Homecomings

by Treadstone17



Series: Battlestar Galactica: Back To The Colonies [5]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Explicit Language, Graphic depiction of death, Mild Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-17 03:04:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11266614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treadstone17/pseuds/Treadstone17
Summary: A year after arriving at the Twelve Colonies, the first-ever fleet of ships from Earth are reconnoitering the worlds in an attempt to bring the planets and mankind back to their glory.Yet on the most pivotal planet of them all, the fleet is on the brink of war.





	1. Chapter One

**BATTLESTAR GALACTICA**

******HOMECOMINGS** ** **

 

_Prologue_

 

 **Admiral Lee Adama** was trying to bring order to the mayhem in CIC onboard the _William Adama._ The sudden attack on the Raptor carrying _Adama's_ CAG, Captain Nicholas Bond had stunned everyone to their very core. They all were trained to possibly use acts of violence to defend themselves and to have violence visited upon them.

But this wasn't expected.

"OK, everyone!", the Admiral finally said about as loud as he could. "Everyone!". He waited as the room finally began to calm down. His people had blown off a little steam, which was good, now they had to get down to business.

"People", he looked around the entire room. "Let's get it together. I know this wasn't what we expected, but we're professionals, and we've got a job to do."

Everyone was snapping back into themselves after the sudden Krypter message that the CAG's bird was down. Now, they were letting their training kick back on.

"OK", Lee took a breath, "XO, I want SAR Operations to begin at once. Contact Captain Abdullah and have him form up his Raptors. For the moment, he's CAG."

"Aye, sir." Brevin Cross turned to his station to dial up Rakwan Abdullah, Call Sign Sandstorm. He was second-in-command next to Nick Bond, and now he was in charge.

"I want ten more squadrons of Marines down to the surface, full combat gear, as quickly as we can", he turned around. "Signals, advise General Grayson more troops will be on their way. Advise the transports I want a SAR drop to the General leaving for the planet within ninety minutes. By sundown, we need a full division on the surface."

The Marines on board were experts at Search And Rescue and had trained endlessly for that scenario since long before leaving Earth. The Raptors and Falcons may be able to do air sweeps, but if wanted to find his three people, be they dead or alive, ground units would have to be used.

Signals turned toward the Admiral. "Admiral, Admiral Thrace-Bond, and Governor and Mrs. Bond are leaving the _King_ in five minutes. ETA about thirty minutes from now."

"Thank you, Ensign", and that reminded him of something. "XO, did Abby leave the _Sagan_ yet?" One of the first things Lee had done was to inform Nick Bond's sister of what had happened. He wanted her on the Flagship at least for a while.

"Sir, yes, sir" the XO responded, "she's aboard already, Admiral. We have her in your quarters for the moment, if that's OK with you?"

"Thanks, Brevin, that'll be fine for now. Take Kara and her parents directly there when they arrive."

"Signals, let me talk to this half of The Fleet." in thirty seconds, he was broadcasting to all the ships in the Helios Alpha System.

"Attention crew of the _Adama_ , and the rest of The Fleet. As you've heard, an unprovoked attack occurred a short time ago against UED units over Caprica. One of our Raptors, piloted by our Air Group Commander, Captain Nicholas Bond, was shot down. With him are Lieutenant Rick Londhal and Lieutenant Annabel Marisio. We do not know precisely where their Raptor; we do not know the condition of our people. Search and Rescue is already underway.

"Admiral Thrace-Bond, as well as Governor and Mrs. Bond are en route to the _Adama._ The Governor's daughter, Abby Bond-Creider is currently on board the flagship. Concerted ground operations to find our people will begin within several hours.

"Until that time, I ask you to keep Captain Bond, Lieutenant Londhal and Lieutenant Marisio in your thoughts and prayers. Adama out."

The SAR was being organized rapidly; General Grayson was mobilizing what ground forces he had, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements, and Captain Abdullah had his birds circling carefully over the Caprican Mountain Range.

Lee's next job was to go talk to Abby Bond-Creider.

 

* * *

 

I

 

 **General Kendrick Grayson** hadn't seen Nick Bond's Raptor go down. The attack had taken place about twelve miles from the West foot of the Mountains, and the CAG had been below the horizon at that time. But it was all he could do at the moment to keep his Marines from scrambling up into the Mountain and killing anything in sight.

"This is General Grayson, let's cut this shit out, and get ready for business." He hadn't shown it outwardly, but he was not a happy man that his troops had damn near rioted like that. He would have to deal with that at another time. He liked their enthusiasm to immediately go after the CAG and his shipmates, but they needed to be reined in.

"We are expecting to be reinforced by a Division at the end of the day. The first transports are leaving orbit now, and are bringing more Marines and more arms. We don't need a whole division for a SAR, but upon their arrival, we will be sending two full brigades into the area where CAG is thought to have gone down. I want everyone to prepare camp within a kilometer of the slopes and hunker down while reinforcements arrive. For the moment, all SAR activities are being done via the air.

"You all know the drill for this. We do not go in until we have sufficient forces. Going up those hills in small groups is an invitation to get killed. I appreciate your willingness to go in like that; but I need everyone to use their fuckin' heads, not their balls out here. Grayson out."

"Very diplomatic, General", his Second-in-Command, Colonel Henrich Otter said evenly. A sixty-year-old German, he had served in the Wehrmacht and with U.N. forces before joining UED. Like most Germans in the military, he was usually tough and no-nonsense. He wasn't above tweaking his boss's nose, however. "And I thought you were upset?"

Despite the situation, the Commanding General laughed. It broke the tension for a moment.

 

* * *

 

Commander Chase Carrico, XO of the Battlestar _Laura Roslin_ was a busy man. He didn't have pandemonium in his CIC like Lee did, but people were on edge. The didn't like an attack on their people any more than the next person, but they were trying to focus on the job at hand, which was to get this part of the fleet, at least for the moment, to Canceron.

"Helm, new course 155 mark 291, half impulse, advise all ships." He said calmly. He was a sturdy soul, and the burden of command had not gotten to him in the few times he had been put in charge.

"Aye, Sir, 155 mark 291 at one-half, steady as she goes."

Just then Signals looked his way. "Commander, I have Admiral Baltar on the horn for you."

Carrico adjusted his headset and switched his computer screen to the phone application. "Send the Admiral through, Lieutenant."

Moments later, he heard the line click. "Admiral Baltar, this is the XO, how may I help you?"

"Chase I just received a communique from Lee. He's putting me, at least for the moment, as head of this half of the fleet." Like any such news that was given to someone, she hoped he wasn't angry about it. He wasn't.

"I kind of expected that Admiral, to be honest", he said ruefully. "It was kind of strange giving orders to you and Admiral Tyrol, you know."

Caprica chuckled. "I know it was, Commander, but you handled it like a pro." She paused for a second. "As for now, I'm remaining on the _King_ ; the _Adama_ is yours. Unless we're called over to Caprica under Condition One when Kara is still away, you're still in titular charge of The Fleet."

"I'm honored by your confidence in me, Admiral Baltar", Chase said, meaning every word of it.

"Don't sell yourself short, Chase, you're going to have your own ship someday. I have every faith in you to operate this half of the fleet indefinitely. I just wanted to let you know what Lee told me and how I want to handle it for now."

"Thank you for the courtesy of letting me know, Admiral", he said, looking at what was, for the moment, his CIC. "This crew won't let you down."

"I have no doubt of that, Commander. If you need anything, don't hesitate to contact me."

"Aye, sir."

The ships heading to Canceron had all made the course change, and they would be in orbit around Canceron in a few hours. "Steady as she goes, people", the Commander said, allowing himself a small breath to ease his own tension.

 

* * *

 

Abby Bond-Creider hadn't been left all by her lonesome in Lee's quarters. An MP was with her in case she needed anything. He had tried to relax her by getting her some water and asking her if there was anything else he could do for her. She thanked him for the water but advised him she just wanted to think for a while.

After about forty minutes with just the two of them, the door came open, and Admiral Adama, escorted by another MP, came through the door.

"Lee!", she ran to the Admiral, and they hugged tightly. To Abby, Lee was practically like an older brother. They had known each other since she was about sixteen, and he was no less a part of the family, in his own way than Kara was.

Lee slowly rocked her in the hug. "Gods, Abby, I wish I knew what to say." As tears welled up in his eyes.

"Lee", she kissed him on the cheek, "you're not at fault for this. Nick knows the risks, just like dad did, and just as you and Kara know. He was doing something he loved. Now we just have to hope", and she hugged him one more time.

Lee smiled at Abby. "I must say, the Bond women are amazing ladies", which made Abby laugh in spite of the tension. "How are you at the moment? Can I do anything for you?"

"No, I'm good Lee. Well, I could use another bottle of water, if it isn't too much trouble."

Lee didn't hesitate and fetched the water for her. "You don't need anything to eat at the moment?"

"No, Admiral, if I ate, I think I might barf at the moment", and that may Lee smile and laugh lightly.

"Uh, not in my quarters, please?", and they laughed again, as he took her hand. "I will tell you that we have a Search And Rescue that's being organized on the Division level, and should be down on the surface within a few hours. It'll probably take a couple more hours after that to have everything organized."

"So no real search at the moment?", she said bleakly.

"We have Raptors and Falcons overhead doing what they can. But the area we think he went down in is a thick forest, so it's tough to see", and then he added. "We can't start the ground search until we have enough manpower down there to do it safely, Abby."

The youngest Bond sighed. "I know that Lee, and trust me, I appreciate what you and they are doing, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful."

He smiled at her again. "Consider it a non-issue, Abby. In your shoes, I'd be a lot less calm than you are."

"Thanks, Lee", she said, brightening up a bit "I just want them to find my brother...", which started her tears again. "I know he could be alive or dead, but I just want him and the other two found and brought home."

"And we will", he hugged her again. "I'm gonna remain here for a short while. Until the SAR is in place, I can be away from CIC for a while. Besides, your parents and your sister should be here in about twenty minutes."

Abby clasped his hand again. "Thanks for staying for a few, Lee. You're the best."

 

* * *

 

Kara had done the Raptor driving from the _King_ on the way to join up with the Flagship. He father was right-seating this one but had spent a lot of time in the back, not wanting to leave Judith Bond alone.

" _Adama,_ Roslin Actual, request landing instructions."

"Roslin Actual, turn right to course 217 mark 038, seven miles from the end of the bay, call when you have checkers green."

"Aye, _Adama,_ 217 mark 038, seven clicks out." A few moments after that, she was lined up on final, " _Adama,_ Roslin Actual, I have green."

"Roger that, Actual, you and your party are to proceed directly to Admiral Adama's quarters upon arrival."

Five minutes later, they climbed out of the Raptor, and under heavy MP escort, headed to Lee's quarters.

 

* * *

 

Lee was still with Abby when the other three arrived, and her mother was the first to appear. Judith cradled her youngest in her arms as they both audibly cried, holding each other as tight as they could. Lee first walked over to the Governor, and the two embraced in a warm hug. Then he turned to Kara, and his long-time friend/enemy/rival/pain in the ass hugged him without a word, as tears streamed down her face. There was no rank in here. This was just a family that needed each other.

After letting go of her mother, Abby went over to her father, and he wrapped his youngest up as he'd never let her go. He did, of course, then Abby and her big sister Kara looked at each other, and both broke down in each other's arms.

"Starbuck", she said still holding her sister tightly, "I'm so scared..."

Kara backed off the hug for a moment. "Munchkin, so am I", she said with a wan smile, "but we'll get through this as we get through everything-together", she and her sister continued to hug. At the moment, Kara could protect Abby. She had always sworn to protect her brother and sister from the moment she was adopted, and she was beside herself that she hadn't been there for Nick.

After hugs and tears had been used up for the moment, Lee invited him into the more spacious living quarters, away from his office. The MP's got each of them water, then they quietly retired, to leave the group alone.

Lee was the first one to speak. "Governor, Judith, I'd give anything at this moment to trade places with Nick", he said, tears still in his eyes.

Judith Bond moved next to the Admiral on the couch, and she kissed him on the cheek, "Lee, don't do this to yourself", she said quietly. "Everyone who puts on a uniform knows the risks; those of us who stand behind anyone in a uniform knows the risk. We know you love Nick like a brother, but you couldn't have done anything about this."

Lee knew she was right, but he felt he had let down this extended family of his. Kara sensed that and immediately stood up for him.

"Lee", she said quietly, but with a smile on her face, "I think I can speak for everyone here in saying that you are part of our family, and although you're The Admiral, you can lean on us to help you through this. We've always been here for each other", she looked around the room proudly at her family, "and we extend that to you as well."

Lee regained his control. "Thank you, Kara. You know, you can be a pain in the ass more times than not", and they all laughed, "but there's no one I'd rather have on my side."

They were all silent for a few minutes, attempting to calm down, then Governor Bond spoke up. "Lee, can you give us the latest on what's going on, son?"

Lee took a breath and dove in. "I was telling Abby a few minutes before you arrived that we have a division starting to make its way down to the surface. I don't think we'll have any time today to get the boots moving into the area where we think Nick's bird went down, but as I also told Abby, we have to do this right."

"I'd expect nothing less of you, Admiral", the Governor continued. "I know we're talking about our son and their brother, but I don't want to unnecessarily risk anyone else's son or daughter if it can be helped."

"What's the Op Plan, Lee?" It was Kara again.

"Grayson and Brevin are putting that together right now. They're going to go over it with me in a few hours. My bet is we'll put up a screening force facing North so that anyone from that direction would run into death itself if they try to get by us. Then we'll probably head up the slopes from the West and the South. There's no camouflage South of where Nick went down, so it's a good bet no one is there", he paused and went on, "but we're going to cover that flank as well."

"Any chance of getting the camouflage off of the area?", Judith Bond inquired.

"Until we get our people back, our sole priority is simply Search and Rescue. We don't want to fight an unknown force unless we absolutely have to. I'm hoping that overwhelming firepower from the ground and the air where we think the Raptor could be will make these people think twice."

"Forgive me, Lee", Abby spoke up again, "I'm the non-military brat in the family", which made them all laugh, "but what exactly is going to happen."

"Abby, first rule of warfare: nothing goes according to any plan", he said seriously. "I wonder sometimes why we over-plan the way we do, but I guess we have to", then he turned to her question. "We'll be moving in Special Forces overnight on a line just to The North of where we think Nick's bird went down, so they can interdict any hostile forces when the other troops begin ascending the Mountain just after sunrise tomorrow morning; We'll have some more Special Ops units facing South, with Falcon and Raptor support, just in case any bad guys are there-we don't think anyone's not under the camouflage, but we have to hedge our bets. After that, it's a slow climb up to the area we think the Raptor is."

"Didn't anyone see a fire from the Raptor", Abby continued.

"That's one thing about using EM propulsion, Munchkin", her older sister turned to her. "there's no fuel to catch fire. It goes down, and in that thicket, we can't see much. That may be bad for us, but it could be a life-saver for them, not having to deal with a fire."

Abby got that point and it actually made her feel a little better.

"Admiral, with your permission", the Governor turned to Lee, "I'd like to go down there this evening to meet with Grayson. I don't want to bother him when he's getting his game plan in line, but I'd like to talk to him."

"You don't need my permission, Governor", Lee smiled at his long-time mentor.

"True, but it is a combat area now, and I'd like your blessing to go." Lee couldn't say no, but again, it's one thing Lee liked about the man: he knew who the experts were.

"I don't think Kendrick will have a problem with that, sir", he nodded to Justin Bond.

"Lee, I think Abby and I would like to go down as well", which made Lee, Kara and the Governor turn suddenly in their direction.

The Governor began to protest, "Judith, you can't..." But she raised a hand up to cut him off lightly.

"Honey, I don't want to go down there to cause a scene, but I think it's important that we let some of the troops going in that we're behind them one-hundred percent, and that we're grateful for their work."

"Lee?"

"Gods is this a stubborn family", which elicited a little more laughter. "I don't have a problem with that. But you two are non-combatants, so we'll swing a Raptor well away from all of this, and land you a few clicks west of everything.

Lee knew what was coming next, and he didn't even have to look up to know it.

"Then Admiral", Kara said, more formally, "request permission to pilot a Raptor for the SAR mission tomorrow, sir."

Judith and Justin Bond were both torn by Kara's request, even though they, too, knew it was coming. There were immensely proud of their oldest daughter, and that she was commanding her own Battlestar; and they were proud of her for wanting to go after her "little brother", as she always had called Nick. But the other part of them, knowing that they may have already lost one of their children, was deathly frightened about losing a second.

Kara sensed that immediately, and she looked at her parents. "Mom, dad", she beamed at them, "you both taught me to be courageous and honorable at all times. I can't think of anything more honorable than going after my brother..." she momentarily choked up, "and bringing him home."

Justin Bond looked at his daughter and marveled again about what a gift from the heavens she had been to their family. It still amazed him, that out of all the billions of Human souls that did or had existed, Fate had given him such a wonderful person to call his daughter. But Judith Bond spoke up before he could.

The First Lady of The Fleet approached the chair where her oldest daughter sat. She went down on one knee and grabbed Kara's hand. "Honey, you honor _us_ by wanting to do this. You know part of me is scared to death of what could happen. But you go with my blessing, and I'm sure with your father's blessing."

Kara looked at this amazing woman that Fate had given her as her adopted mother. She had tears coming down her face but felt pride at being this woman's daughter.

Kara pulled her mother off her knees, and they both were standing, and she silently embraced her mother in another fierce hug. "Mom, I'm bringing Nick home, one way or another. You have my word."

Her mom stepped back, and they both laughed for a moment, as they did after crying their eyes out. "I love you and am more proud of you at this moment than at any time since you became my daughter, Starbuck." She lightly kissed her daughter.

With that, Lee returned to the Bridge; Abby was able to bring Brett and Katraine over from their ship, and Kara took off her Admiral's bars, and replaced them with Captain's bars and began preparing to find her brother.

 

* * *

 

II

 

 **The Battle** **star _Laura Roslin_** had been in orbit above Canceron for about fifteen hours. Commander Chase Carrico, in Command of the Battlestar, but not in overall Command of this half of the fleet, was preparing for the first set of Landings to begin scouting this strange world.

The world was populated almost exclusively at the two poles, with the center of Canceron being a desert wasteland, pocked with volcanoes. The brains back on Earth-the scientists and climatologists and so forth had hoped to reclaim some of the desert areas through the use of subterranean irrigation. There wasn't a lot of water on the planet, except on the Southern Pole, but the hope was that what was under the surface, plus perhaps irrigation channels into certain areas would make the land fertile.

The big problem to recolonizing Canceron, was that it had only one resource that it had been able to trade before The Holocaust, and that was Tylium. With the advent of clean, efficient EM drives, Tylium was now obsolete. An effort would be made to not only find a way to grow food, but also to turn the coastline of the Canceron Ocean in the South into a tourist getaway. The Southers, as they were called, had always been amenable enough when it came to making trades and deals, and if it would help them, they'd probably be for it.

It was the Norther's who would probably be the problem. Its history was not unlike that of Australia. Like Australia, there was a barren wasteland in the middle, and as the British had shipped so many prisoners to Australia for punishment, so The Colonies had shipped it's worst offenders to Canceron. That would have been fine, but prisoners had been given "freedom points" for good conduct, and when they got released, they had become street hoodlums, not unlike street gangs in the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Century on Earth.

It was here that they could have another Caprica on their hands. But Chase, along with Admiral Baltar, had a few days before they had to face that reality. They know they could be called to Caprica if things really got dicey over there.

For now, they went about with preparations to reconnoiter Canceron.

 

* * *

 

Lee and the Bond Family touched down about five miles west of The Caprican Mountain Range about 1830 Fleet Standard Time that evening. The Caprican days were very long, and the sun wasn't to set for another five hours. They were ringed with MP's and Marines, who were in a mood to shoot to kill.

The Governor sought out the three women who he had met a week or so ago, just to get their views on what was going on. He doubted they knew very much, but they lived here, and he felt it important to get their ideas.

"Honestly, Governor", Channing Bree began, "I'm surprised that they fired and stirred things up so quickly", she said honestly. "I think eventually you'd have a fight with them, but this doesn't seem to be how they usually work."

"Explain, Ms. Bree?", Governor Bond leaned forward in his seat.

"When they went on roundups to grab men, and even a few women-they usually threatened violence and rarely used force against us. They had a nice arsenal of weapons, and that would intimidate just about anyone. I think I only heard of them using force once or twice. I get the feeling they want to have this power over people without having to really put their own necks on the line."

Kara looked at her father. "Sounds like a terrorist, dad", she said, not using military protocol, and not caring at the moment. "They threaten, but the big shots don't like to be where they might get hurt."

Judith Bond had been introduced to the ladies before the meeting, and she had a lot on her mind. "Ladies, from what you've told us, you never have been up there since these people took over, but do you have any idea what they _might_ do if they had prisoners?"

Thea Breakers answered this time. At one time, she had four children and a husband. Her husband was on Tauron the day of The Holocaust, and had no doubt died there; her four children had been very young then, and despite her best efforts after the bombing, the effects of the radiation at the time and lack of food had not given them much of a chance, so she knew the grief Judith Bond was going through.

"My lady", she said with stark honesty, "I absolutely have no sure idea of what would happen if they are alive and in custody. They do want men to do their work, but they could also try to get information from your son and his two companions, to see what they know."

Kara looked over at her mother. "Another possibility, and I don't say this lightly, mom is they sent a message to us with the shoot-down. They may want to send another message to us."

Judith Bond went a few shades of pale, instantly gleaning what her daughter had said. Blythe Chandra was sitting next to her and grabbed Judy's hand to show support.

The Governor had always been good at compartmentalizing between family and government and/or military matters, but the lines were blurred in this case, and he tried to stay detached from the family emotion of the moment. Knowing there were two others that had flown with Nick made it harder for him, not easier.

"We can't speculate, everyone", he said evenly. "From what our esteemed hostesses have told us, they didn't think this group would act so rashly", he said almost looking down, deep in thought, "Hell, I would have liked to just talk to them first to see what they're thinking."

Kara's emotions were a little raw right now, and she took on some of her old personality for the moment. "Dad, they talked to us alright-they shot down Nick, Rick, and Annabel, without warning. I think we've heard from them everything we need to hear."

Lee looked over at Kara. He hadn't seen that look in her eyes since the attempted _coup d'etat_ that Felix Gaeta and Tom Zarek had almost pulled off. It took his breath away for a moment. Kara looked over at him but nodded at him in reassurance.

"Admiral", her father said, to bring her back a little, "you may be right, but at the moment, our _only_ priority is bringing our people back home, is that clear?"

Kara nodded at her father and put her head down. Her father knew her well enough after all these years that Kara had finally learned to let her emotions out freely and without shame or anger. Unlike Lee, he wasn't worried about her state of mind. He knew she was a Professional, but he still wanted to snap her back a bit. "I understand sir, and I'm sorry if I sounded a little stressed there", she smiled a little, "but I'm still more than a little pissed over this."

Her mother looked directly at her. "I know you are, babe", she said with strength, "but it isn't going to help Nick, Rick or Annabel if we run on anger, and not common sense."

Kara noticeably relaxed at this moment. She smiled wanly at her mother, conceding the point. She just wanted it on record-for later-that she wanted to pay these bastards back.

"Justin, if you don't mind, why don't we make the rounds with the troops-all four of us? I know they're not going just after Justin, but I think we need to show them our support."

"Mom, that's the best idea I've heard all day", Kara smiled.

When Judy Bond got up, Blythe Chedra came over to her. "Mrs. Bond... I must say when we first met the Governor and the Admiral and found out that she had joined a family from Earth, we were all kind of taken aback", she said starkly. "Maybe it was foolish pride. But having met you, your youngest daughter, along with your husband and Kara, I must say you have a remarkable family."

Judith Bond hugged Blythe, which the Caprican had not expected. "Thank you, Blythe, that's very kind of you."

"I'm praying for your son and his colleagues. We may pray differently, from what I understand", which made them both laugh, "but it's no less sincere."

"Then Bless You, Blythe, I accept your generosity."

Her family was waiting for her some yards away. She joined them, with Kara grasping her mother's hand, and Abby taking her father's hand.

 

* * *

 

Farther forward, Lee was in conference with General Grayson, Colonel Otter, and other assorted Officers, going over the final plans.

"Admiral", the General began, "I plan to send the Special Forces in about two hours after sunset and have them make their way along these coordinates", he traced his finger along a line running West-to-East, just inside the perimeter of the Southernmost boundary of the camouflage. "Simultaneously, another Special Ops force will head up the mountain just North of Granite Peak, to cover our flank if anyone is out there to do us harm."

Newly-minted Captain Rakwan Abdullah, as acting CAG, then spoke to the air campaign. "Admiral, we will fly the Raptors at about Angels One for the night recon. I doubt we'll be able to see much, plus we'll be a little further South of where the missile fire seemingly came from. I don't expect we'll need any Falcons at night, but I will have them on Ready Five at all times overnight."

Lee looked over the Op Plan with a final, critical eye. He found nothing that he could complain about in the disposition. "General, Captain, thank you very much. This is a solid plan. Approved."

Both men turned to subordinates close by who went to relay the information to the ground forces and to the _Adama_ and the Raptor Carriers that hovered above.

"We begin the SAR on your command, General", Lee added. "I don't need to tell you this-but I will anyway: I know we have people down up there; and I know one of them is the CAG, who also happens to be the Governor's son and Admiral Thrace-Bond's brother. Trust me, Nick is like a brother to me. But we take it slow and steady. I know the men and women were fired up when word came in that the CAG was down, but again, we use our brains people, not our balls, is that clear?"

Both understood that Lee hadn't needed to tell them that. They knew it, but hearing it that sternly from The Boss inspired them, and would inspire them to tell their charges the same thing-play it smart.

 

* * *

 

III

 

 **Admiral Caprica Baltar** was in CIC aboard the _Laura Roslin_ with Commander Chase Carrico. She had stayed true in letting Chase run the fleet, even though she was in Command while Kara was away. But she wanted to watch and learn more about the beginning of an operation down to a planet. She had several reasons for that.

First, she hoped to command her own Battlestar someday. She didn't care really if it was a _Terran_ or a _Colonial_ , she wanted to take her devotion and loyalty to Humanity to its logical next step, which was commanding a Battlestar. She needed to be versed on such maneuvers if she were to fulfill that goal.

The next reason felt kind of corny to her, but she had felt the need to be here, on the _Roslin,_ showing support to the XO while he began the Canceron Operation. Even though they were on the other side of the System, nerves and emotions were raw after the attack that had taken down the Fleet CAG on Caprica.

It was doubly hard for her, as Judith Bond was perhaps her best friend in the Universe. When Judith was First Lady of The United States, she had gone out of her way to befriend the Cylons who had stayed with humanity. They became fast friends, and she adored Judith's family, from the Governor all the way to Abby. She was heartsick over the news that Nick Bond had gone down. She genuinely had affection for the Captain and had shed her own tears in private on hearing the news.

Caprica felt helpless on the Helios Delta side of the System but knew she also had a job to do, and the best way she could help Justin, Judith, Kara, and Abby was to do her job. If needed, she knew she'd go over there and pick up a weapon to get Nicholas Bond and the other two back.

Caprica had let Chase concentrate on the first mission, while she stayed in the background and monitored the communications channels for any news.

"CAG, Roslin Actual, your Raptors are cleared to launch to the surface. Standard dispersal."

The plan was to land about thirty Raptors about fifteen miles South of Hades, in the Norther Continental Mass, and about twenty about fifteen miles South of Prommos, which lay on the coast of the Canceron Ocean.

Captain Cory Mathers was doing her best to concentrate on getting her forces to the Norther Continent, but it wasn't easy. Like everyone else in The Fleet, the attack on the Fleet CAG, Nick Bond and his two companions had hit a raw nerve with her. She knew Nicholas Bond-not very well, but he had always treated her well in the times they met as she was coming through the ranks. She had told him-probably too many times-how he idolized his older sister Kara.

Part of her wished she was on Caprica, just for the chance to pop one of the fuckers who had shot that Raptor down. But this was her job today, heading for Hades. _They really need to change the name of this city_ , she thought crossly, thinking of the Earthly connotation of the word. Maybe they would when they changed this place from what it used to be.

Her group was on the ground in under thirty minutes, and like before, General Seth Trevor was the Ground Commander once they had landed. Unlike on Aerilon, they expected some trouble on the Norther Continent. The feeling was that some of the old criminal's who had been sent here were loose, or perhaps their offspring by this time. They weren't expecting a joyous welcome in Hades.


	2. Chapter Two

IV

 

 **He awoke a full day afterward.** It took him a while to get his faculties working again, not knowing how much time had passed, and not even knowing what the hell had happened to him. He lay still, waiting for his senses to catch up so he could function properly.

That took about thirty minutes.

By then his head was clearing; his memory was returning and his body was coming back to life. When his memory caught up with the head-clearing, he instantly jolted up a bit, remembering why he was here. When he sat up, his right side hurt like hell. He looked behind him and saw a piece of composite metal sticking out the side of his left buttock, and silently swore in pain. He forgot the shrapnel for a moment. He was able to stand, that's all that mattered.

He was on his feet, still wobbly, but regaining his equilibrium. When he was stable the first thing he did was look around him. He heard only birds, nothing else, not even a breeze. He quietly called out, almost _sotto voce._  "Rick...Annabel...Pirate...Puerperal?" but he received no reply. He turned in another direction and saw the remains of his Raptor.

"Aw, Christ", he swore again and made the painful walk over to the bird. He had been thrown clear perhaps fifteen yards from the wreckage. The side hatch was partly closed, and he went to raise it with both his arms.

"Shiiit!", he silently screamed. He looked down at his right arm. He knew immediately it was broken. He could find some wood out here, and some supplies in the bird to do a crude set of his break later. He eventually got the door up and looked inside...

"Goddammit", he said quietly, entering the Raptor. He looked at the carnage in front of him. "Christ, Rick, Annabel..." He lost his composure for a moment. Rick Londhal had been slammed into the windshield of the Raptor and had mercifully died instantly. He looked over at Annabel Marisio. He could tell she hadn't died right away. He could see blood marks where she had tried to drag herself forward, probably to see if the radio worked. She hadn't gotten far. Both her legs had obviously been broken, and he was sure she had broken her pelvis. Her eyes were still open. Nicholas Bond walked over to what remained of his Communications Officer, yanked her tags off, kissed her on the forehead, then closed her eyes forever.

Going over to Rick wasn't any easier. There wasn't much left of the front of his skull, as it had obviously been crushed on impact. He had no eyes to even close. Axman patted the shoulder of his Right-Seater, then snatched his dog tags from his remains. He said a quick prayer for both of their souls then left the Raptor, painfully closing the hatch behind him.

It was late in the afternoon, and he knew that the Sun stayed up quite a long time on the mountain. His first order of business was to find some shelter until dark ascended. He could wait to eat. He needed some water. He had pulled a Marine backpack together that contained some food and about three days of water if he conserved it, which he had been trained to do. He began searching for cover.

 _Well, dad, I always wanted to be just like you,_ he said in grim sarcasm, _but this is taking things just a little too far._ He continued on.

After about forty minutes, he found a boulder within the forest, and he eyed it closely. He approached it and noticed that some roots from the tree above it and also from some grass covered an entrance to a cave. He had brought his military-grade flashlight, with replacement batteries along in the knapsack, and turned on the powerful light to make sure no critters that could eat him were inside. He saw none. He turned off the light. He tried to camouflage the cave entrance as best he could then crawl inside.

He also had with him the sidearms from his dead comrades, as well as enough ammo to last a long time. The backpack probably weighed one-hundred pounds, but he had done combat drills with up to one-sixty on his back. _Then again, Bond, you didn't have a busted arm or a piece of metal sticking out of your ass._ He took out the water and drank a hefty first swig, just to get some fluids into him. He would eat later.

He fell back asleep within a few minutes.

 

* * *

 

As dark fell west of the Caprican Mountain Range, just north of Granite Peak, the Special Ops teams began their quiet ascent at the precise coordinates that Command had set out in the Op Plan. All in all, about a Regiment and a half, would go up either just to the north of the camouflage or about a mile south of that position, closer to Granite Peak. They were trained to be as silent as the night. Equipped with what was the latest in Night Vision when they had left Earth, and with soft-soled shoes that wouldn't make a lot of noise, they began the SAR.

It was about 0330, Fleet Standard when the trek began. Back near the ruins of Caprica, several large tents spanned the area. One was the Command Center. Admiral Lee Adama was currently back on his ship. Kara was sleeping on the _Adama_ as she would take station in a Raptor about an hour after dawn. Judith Bond and Abby Creider-Bond were bedded down in VIP Quarters on the Flagship.

Governor Bond stayed behind in a tent exclusively for him, not far from the Command Tent. But he couldn't sleep. He had wandered around the area, talking to some Marines and MP's, and even a few Caprican's who had suddenly appeared. Even in a world torn asunder by nuclear war, word traveled fast. General Grayson had the three women that had talked to the Command Authority earlier in the day taken back to their homes near Delphi. This wasn't a place for non-combatants. The MP's tried to get the natives to head away from the area of operation, with varying amounts of success.

Justin Bond didn't want to bother the military commanders, but he had wandered just about everywhere else, except there, so he sheepishly headed towards the ground CIC.

"Ten-Hut!" said an MP, "Governor Of The Fleet On Deck!" Everyone came to rigid attention.

Justin Bond smiled, and as was his way made straight for a deadpan reply. "Jesus, how can any of you be this spry at 0330?", he snickered, which made most of those in the tent laugh as well.

General Grayson smiled and walked towards his Commander-In-Chief. "Sir, it certainly isn't how I like it but this is what they pay me for."

"Kendrick you have any fresh coffee around here?", and like Magic, a female staff member handed him a steaming cup of Joe. He took a whiff of the wonderful scent, and it perked him up.

"Thank you young lady", the Governor lifted the cup in salute, "this'll hit the spot."

"Anytime, sir", she said with a smile and saluted him again.

After a healthy sip, the Governor got to business. "So General, how is the insertion going?" And he took another sip.

"Sir, the Spec. Ops teams began ascending about ninety minutes ago. As I said earlier, their orders are to be cautious and quiet as the breeze."

"I don't want it any other way, Kendrick."  He had made it clear that this wasn't to be a rush job because it involved his son. Nick wasn't the only one missing, and he suspected the other two had family aboard the _William Adama_ who were being looked after, just as his was. "Trust me, General, if I were a little younger, I'd get in a Raptor and do recon myself. I am rated you know and have flown in combat in another lifetime."

"I know the feeling sir. Believe me, I feel like charging up the hill and popping any son-of-a-bitch who shows his face that isn't in uniform", he said grimly, "but we're trained not to go off half-cocked...literally if you get my drift, Sir", which made Justin Bond laugh out loud, careful not to spill the coffee in his mug.

"I gave orders like that a long time ago to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, my friend."

"I know this is a tough time for you, Sir, and meaning no disrespect, but I was very young when you were shot down in Afghanistan. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of our three people up there, but it's not my ballpark. I know we train for survival in these circumstances, but how did you go about it?"

"I don't mind you asking at all, Kendrick", he said graciously. "Believe it or not it's a bit cathartic for me to talk about it. It helps me deal with worrying about my son."

The Governor went on for about fifteen minutes, detailing a lot of what had happened. He'd been shot down by an Anti-Aircraft Missile that The Taliban had received from Iran. He had been at Angels Fifteen when he got the warning. An F-15 could accelerate quickly, but those missiles could also get to Mach three faster than he could. His single-engine aircraft had been hit, but somehow he was able to control his descent for a while. When he got to about two thousand feet up, he ejected from his aircraft, landing on the precipice of a forested area. He had broken his ankle but was able to get around.

"A lot of it _is_ training Ken", he said seriously, "but most of it was dumb-ass luck." He shivered slightly at the thought, knowing his son was...might be doing that same thing.

A group had gathered around him without him really noticing. When he finished, those that were listening came up to shake his hand and clap him on the back, not only because he was The Fleet Governor, but that he had been in combat, and seen the elephant in the room the way most of them never would, and they wanted to show their respect and support for him as their leader and as a father.

"You've got good people here Ken", the Governor said quietly, looking down at his half-empty cup of coffee. "A credit to the uniform."

"If you don't mind me saying sir, I think all of them have a pretty good role model for being a good person." He looked directly at Justin Bond and raised his eyebrows.

"Thanks, Kendrick", he said, still quiet. "I'm going to get some more coffee."

 

* * *

 

Ensign Natalia Schrevrenko had gone about her duties on board the _Adama,_ just like everyone else. And like everyone else, she had been stunned and angered by the events over the last few days, that had put the fleet on a war footing.

But for her, the anger and hurt were deeply personal.

She had met Nicholas Bond just over ten months ago. They got along instantly and now she knew she was deeply in love with the American. She had had boyfriends before, but never anyone who made her feel the way Nick did. He was a gentleman; he was fun to be around; he treated everyone, without exception with respect and dignity. She had found that lacking in the Russian military, which is one reason she had joined UED. She had fallen very much in love with the CAG and hoped they would get married someday in the not-too-distant future.

But now she had no idea if he was dead or alive.

She had tried to conceal her anguish while on duty and had done a pretty good job, or so she thought. But she was about to find out that she hadn't done as good a job as she thought.

She had gone to the mess to eat dinner and tried to be social with her friends. She still had an appetite but it did little to make her feel better. Her friends didn't notice that she was hiding something.

But her Chief had.

Captain Kamala Wimbusi, a native of Nigeria had been watching all her charges after the incident on the surface. She could tell everyone was hurt, and angry, and on edge. She was fifty-five. Forty years ago in Nigeria, she had lost her father to the armed militias that had a tendency to roam throughout Africa at that time. Her mother didn't try to let on that it was bothering her, but she had seen almost the identical look in her mother's eyes that she saw now in Natalia's.

She let the Ensign go back to her quarters after dinner, and not long after knocked on Natalia's door.

Natalia was a bit startled by the knock. Without Nick around, she didn't expect any company this late. "Come in?"

Captain Wimbusi walked into the room. The Ensign came immediately to attention and saluted. "Chief Wimbusi", she said, still at attention.

"As you were, Ensign Schrevrenko, I'm not here for anything work-related", then she corrected herself, "well, not officially work-related."

"What can I do for you, Captain?", the young Russian said earnestly.

"Natalia, I've been watching everyone under my supervision the last forty-eight hours. I know that the events down on Caprica have hurt and angered many of us. It's my job to watch for signs that someone is taking too much stress."

"I assure you, Captain, I have not slackened in my work since the...incident", she had paused slightly when saying that. "I'm angry like everyone else, but I have a job to do."

"Natalia, let me tell you a story", and the Captain began the story about her father all those years ago, and how her mother had dealt with it. "Ensign, I see the same look in your eyes that I saw in hers so long ago. I haven't seen it again until all of this unfolded. But I see it in your eyes."

Russians by nature were a stoic people. The Nazi soldiers during World War II had been told they were subhuman by their leaders, but their penchant for deflecting pain and sorrow had astonished even the most hardened of SS Officers then. But she had to tell _someone_  and she knew it.

"Sir I don't quite know how to let this out, but I have to let it out in some way", she said, with tears forming in her eyes.

Kamala went over to her Ensign and put her arm around her. "Then you need to confide in me. What is bothering you?"

Fifteen minutes, Admiral Adama had been wakened and was asked to meet with both Captain Wimbusi and Ensign Schrevrenko.

 

* * *

 

V

 

 **It had been about two hours** since the Special Ops team had begun to climb into hostile territory, to begin the search for their fallen comrades. Behind them, the "regular" Marines were itching to head up for the main thrust of the ground portion of the SAR. One of those waiting was a thirty-six-year-old Marine named Captain Thomas Dalbott.

Dalbott was from New Zealand, a nation that most people didn't know had a proud history of warfare dating back centuries. They had even fought in Afghanistan and Iraq during the push against Islamic Terrorists earlier in the Century. They were tough and meant business in combat. Thomas Dalbott was no different.

He had become friends with Nick Bond just before they had set sail from Earth. They were of the same rank and often ran into each other in the Officers Lounge on the _Adama._ While not in the same branch of the service, they had a lot in common, especially the offbeat sense of humor. Thomas had grown up a great admirer of the CAG's father. He had been a teenager when the Earth-Cylon War took place, and Justin Bond was a hero to him, as was his adopted daughter Kara. When he first met Nick, he was kind of star-struck, but Nick Bond had put him at ease immediately.

Now, like everyone else he was pissed. But like everyone else except for maybe Nick and his shipmates the two-day gathering of forces had allowed them to think with their heads again, not with their nuts. Like everyone else, he had wanted to simply run up the Mountain and kill anyone who showed up who wasn't in uniform. The concentration of forces had allowed everyone to calm down some and let their training guide them, not bravado.

Just before dawn his Company was checking their weapons one final time and making sure they had all their gear for the march up the slopes. As the Company he led was finishing those tasks there was a commotion off to his right. He soon realized that in the middle of a scrum of soldiers was none other than Governor Justin Bond.

He didn't scramble over himself but waited for Justin Bond to get to him, as he didn't like to be pushy. After a few minutes, the Governor was near his Company and Thomas, being The Boss of The Company, stepped forward and saluted.

"Governor Bond, Sir!", the Kiwi said in the unmistakable English of his land, "it's an honor to have you here sir!"

He gave the Governor a smart salute, then the Governor stepped forward to shake his hand. "What's your name, Captain?"

"Thomas Dalbott, Governor, from New Zealand, sir." The Governor had always loved the Kiwi accent, but he didn't mention that.

"It's my honor, Captain Dalbott", he said warmly. "How's your Company doing, son?"

"Sir we're ready as hell, locked and cocked", sounding more like a Yank than a Kiwi.

"That's what I like to hear. You take care of your men out there Captain", the Governor said earnestly.

"I will sir", then he paused for a moment. "Sir, may I share something with you briefly?"

"Yes, of course, Captain."

"Your son, Captain Bond and I have become good friends onboard the _Adama_ , sir. He and I are much alike, and I wanted you to know what a fine man I think he is."

Justin Bond had to control his emotions for a moment, then went on. "Thank you, Captain, that means a lot to me."

"One more thing, sir", he hoped he wasn't rambling. "If I have to, when I find them I'll carry all three of them on my back", and he paused again. "Well, now that I think of it, maybe I'll make Nick help me", and he smiled.

Governor Bond laughed heartily. "I can see why you two get along, Captain!", he said still smiling. "You sound just like him, and to be fair, just like me as well."

"Thank you, Sir, I guess I'm in good company", then he finished. "Sir we are going to bring all three of them home, you have my word on that", and he snapped off another salute. Justin Bond approached him again. He went to shake the young man's had, and also clasped him on the other shoulder.

"You honor them with your courage, Captain Dalbott. Good hunting, son."

 

* * *

 

The sun was just beginning to crack to the south over Caprica City. Admiral Thrace-Bond was sitting in the cockpit of a Raptor aboard the _William Adama._ She had discarded her Admiral's bars and put on those of a Captain. It didn't fool anyone, but it did impress the other Jocks. She wasn't trying to impress anyone, and they understood that as well. They were as honored by her service as she was by theirs.

Her right-seater for this flight was Lieutenant Ito Genda, call sign "Sunshine". He was a very distant relative of the famous Japanese World War Two pilot and strategist Minoru Genda, who had devised the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He had read a lot about this distant relative, and while he abhorred what that Genda had fought for, he respected the courage the man had.

Communications and electronics were being handled by Lieutenant Kelsey Graham, call sign "Blondie". Her call sign had been given to her the first day of flight training in UED-"Blondie". It no coincidence that she had a natural head of platinum-blonde hair. Kara thought Caprica might be jealous, but kept that thought to herself.

Sunshine was going through final checks, with Blondie in the back getting her systems ready. At that moment, Starbuck boarded the Raptor. They had all met the day before and had run some sims together. It wasn't ideal taking a team not familiar with each other into a possible combat situation, but both seemed to know their business.

When Kara came aboard, Genda sprang to his feet. "Admiral, sir!", which caused Lieutenant Graham to turn around and salute.

"As you were, guys. First order of business: on our missions, I am Captain Thrace-Bond, not Admiral. It still puts me above you, but I don't want you to think of me as being that high above you", she said with a smile that broke the tension.

"We are honored to have you aboard...uh, Captain", Ito Genda said sheepishly, which made Kara laugh.

"Second order of business: If you can't call me 'Captain', try Starbuck. I think that might work better."

Kelsey smiled. "That might be easier, sir", she said and laughed despite herself.

"I think we'll do just fine together, guys", and then she put her game face on. "OK, Lieutenants, it's showtime."

Fifteen minutes later, they were airborne and headed towards their assigned patrol zone, which was just to the west of the summit, and just slightly south of the camouflage demarcation. Kara didn't think they'd find Nick there but she had demanded Captain Abdullah treat her like one of his jocks, and he had put her where he thought she should be.

He had insisted that she be that Second-In-Command.

"All Units, this is the CAG", Abdullah announced as they headed towards the surface. "Combat protocol now in effect, stay sharp people."

Kara, Kelsey, and Ito all took deep breaths, dug into their seats for a moment, and they became quiet.

"OK, Blondie, Sunshine", she said with a deadly seriousness on her face, "time to dance."

 

* * *

 

VI

 

 **Lee was still aboard his ship**. He didn't need to be on the ground bothering General Grayson, and he didn't need to be bothering Abdullah at this time. His XO currently had the bridge. Lee had needed to awaken Judith Bond and Abby, and tell them some unexpected news.

Abby and her mother were getting dressed, not knowing really why Lee had summoned them. They know it couldn't be about the SAR already, as someone wouldn't have told them to come to Lee's office for such news.

"Do you have _any_ idea why Lee needs to see us, mom?"

"Honey, not the first clue. If they had found Nick already, Lee would have come here I suspect, so it's not about that", her daughter had gotten dressed in her quarters, while not trying to wake Brett and Katraine, and her mom was trying to finish up.

"Men", Abby thought she had said it to herself, but realized she hadn't when her mother laughed.

"You finally caught on Abby?", as Judith Bond came out with a smile on her face, despite the present situation.

"I figured it out a long time ago mom, probably when I was dating Jared Branch my Junior year in High School."

"Oh, he _was a_ piece of work, babe", she laughed again. "I think Nick wanted to kill him on several occasions."

"If Nick hadn't, Kara or dad would have", and she laughed.

The looked at each other, coming back to the moment. "OK, my dear daughter, let's see what The Admiral Of The Fleet wants."

 

* * *

 

A few minutes later, they were in Lee's quarters. Lee rose from his desk and gave each of the ladies a hug and a kiss. "How are you two doing?", he said earnestly to his almost-mother and sister.

"We're coping, Lee", Judith said honestly, still holding his hand. "Thank you again for your hospitality for letting us stay for a while."

"The honor's mine, Ma'am", he said with a smile.

He had them head into his living room, seated them and got each of them an Orange Juice, then he got to business.

"I asked for you to meet me this morning because something was brought to my attention last night that I think you need to be aware of."

For the life of them, neither woman could figure out what that might be, so Lee continued.

He got up for a moment and turned to the MP who was at the door between the living quarters and his office. "Sargent, have our two other guests join us?"

Moments after that came two ladies that neither of them had ever seen. One was African with Captains bars, and the others was a Caucasian, who was an Ensign.

They stopped just short of their chairs, and Lee continued. "Judith, Abby, I'd like you to meet Captain Kamala Wimbusi, Chief Of The Ship, and Ensign Natalia Schrevrenko, Engine Specialist, First Class."

Judith answered for both she and Abby. "Captain, Ensign", she said politely, still trying to figure this out. Lee bade the other two ladies be seated.

Lee let the Captain start first.

"Mrs. Bond, Abby, it is an honor to meet you, although I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Thank you, Captain", Judith said generously, still wondering what this was about. "How can I be of service to you today?"

"Part of my job, ma'am isn't to just order my people around to do their tasks, but also to watch them especially in times of stress like this, to see how they're doing as both a crew member and as a person. Both are equally important."

"I agree completely, Captain", Judith said evenly.

"After the attack on the CAG I was obviously watching my people very closely, and Natalia here caught my eye. I could tell something was deeply bothering her. I went to her quarters and talked to her last night, and with your permission, I'd like her to take the story from here." She looked warmly at her Ensign.

"Mrs. Bond, Abby, I'm honored that you're here. I really don't know quite how to do this, so please be patient with me for a moment?"

"Take as much time as you need, Ensign", Abby spoke up for the first time, "we don't bite", she said with a smile, that made Natalia relax some.

"It is true, I've been struggling since the attack, and there's a reason for that." Neither of the Bond women had caught on yet.

"What is that Natalia", Judith Bond asked with genuine concern.

"We hadn't told anyone, but your son, Nicholas and I have been dating for about the last ten months. We didn't tell anyone yet, as we wanted to wait, but now..." Natalia began to sob.

Judith was floored by the young woman's confession. Being the person she was, she went over to the couch where Natalia was and wrapped the girl in her arms, breaking down in tears.

"Oh, Ensign, I'm so sorry that you've gone through this alone!" Abby was almost in tears but took a moment to reflect on what an incredible woman her mother was.

Natalie was openly crying now, as Judith Bond rocked her back and forth in her arms. Lee had tears in his eyes, as did Kamala.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Bond that we hadn't told you, I feel so guilty now." She felt relieved to finally let this pent-up grief escape her.

"My dear, it's alright, it's going to be alright", Judy Bond continued to cry, comforting Natalia. Abby went over the chair next to where her mother and Natalia were sitting.

For about five minutes Judith Bond cradled the frightened, confused Ensign and realized, suddenly, that she had gained another daughter. When they both finally regained some composure, they both sat up straight on the couch.

"I apologize, ma'am, Captain, Admiral, for my childish behavior."

Lee spoke up this time. "Ensign Schrevrenko you have nothing to apologize for", he said respectfully to the young woman. "Being human isn't a disease, it's who we are."

At that point, Captain Wimbusi rose from her seat. "If you'll excuse me, everyone, I have other duties to perform", she smiled at Judith Bond, who wordlessly said "thank you", to the Captain, who smiled and nodded.

Finally, Judith Bond looked into the face of this young woman, really for the first time. She realized from the accent that she was from Russia, and also through the tears and mottled cheeks could also see she was a beautiful young lady. Natalia was still looking down, almost embarrassed to eye contact with the other two women. Russians by nature were not emotional people, and she felt the centuries of that tradition in the shame she felt now.

"Natalia? Natalia-look at me", Judith Bond commanded her. Reluctantly, Ensign Schrevrenko looked up.

"I'm so sorry for your family, Mrs. Bond, I know you love Nicholas very dearly", she said painfully.

"And it's obvious that you do too, my dear", as a smile crossed her face, which momentarily confused the Ensign. "I'm so sorry for you as well, Natalia. May I ask you something, Ensign, that's personal?"

"Of course, Mrs. Bond", still in a state of emotional turmoil.

"Do you have any family onboard The Fleet?"

"No, ma'am", she said without rancor. "I was an only child and my parents died in a private plane crash about ten years ago. They were my only family."

Abby Bond immediately jumped in. "Not anymore, Natalia", she said with a smile on her face, looking right at the Ensign.

"I..I don't understand, Abby?" Judith Bond picked up from there.

"Natalia", she began, and the Ensign momentarily interrupted her.

"Call me Natalie, as Nick does", she actually gave a wan smile for the first time.

Judith's smile got even brighter. "Natalie, you obviously love Nick very much am I right?", and the young Russian nodded. "All of us-the Governor, the Admiral, Abby, Brett and I, love Nick with all our hearts too."

"But of course, he always speaks with such pride of your family, Mrs. Bond."

"Natalie, _you_ are part of this family now. No matter what the outcome of this situation, you are now and always will be, a member of this family. And I mean that with all my heart." Judith Bond began crying in much the same way as when she and Justin had adopted Kara.

"But...But how can I be family? We weren't married, we weren't even engaged!", she protested mildly.

"Natalie, a family isn't counted by a ring on a finger or wedding anniversaries. It's counted by how much we love and cherish each other. You love Nick; we love Nick. That binds us together, it makes it so we don't have to face things on our own, that we find strength in each other. _That_ is what defines family, my dear."

Natalie considered this for a moment and was floored by the conclusion. "You say, that I am a member of the Bond family?"

"Yes, honey, I am" she beamed at the young lady. "You have the love, support, and strength of this family behind you now. We won't let you face this by yourself. We are here to help you get through this."

The young woman collapsed again into Judith's arms. A few minutes later, Natalia had regained control and had regained some strength in herself.

"I can never repay you for this kindness Mrs. Bond", she said gratefully. "I couldn't even begin to try."

"Family means never have to repay, only to give in kind.", Judith kissed the young woman on the cheek.

Abby looked over at Natalia. "You have us now, Natalie. You're not alone any longer."

Natalia wiped away the last of the tears, thought for a moment, then blurted out. "The Governor and Admiral will be quite surprised to find out their family has grown since this morning." Judith and Abby laughed at the remark.

"Natalie, you sound just like Nicholas. See? You fit right in", and Judith Bond hugged her again.

 

* * *

 

It was about six hours into the ground SAR. Captain Thomas Dalbott's Company had tracked about a mile-and-a-half in that time span. As the sun came up their movements slowed or stopped. The best defense they had was not to be noticed in the daylight and to move more swiftly under the cover of darkness. Because the days on Caprica were so long, they were forced to move during daylight, but they did so at a very slow, very deliberate pace.

They had heard only the sound of birds so far. Not even a hint of a human voice or the sound of an animal that might attack them. They had been warned such creatures were on these hills.

They had gone a few hundred feet further when Dalbott, taking the point, held his right elbow out, raised his forearm, and clenched his fist. That meant "stop". He had his helmet on, and all their helmets had radios built into them with microphones that let them talk to each other.

"Company", he said in almost a whisper, but the internal headsets were state-of-the-art, and his men and women had no trouble hearing him, "I have movement at my one-o'clock, about eight-hundred meters ahead. Stay still."

At this distance, he couldn't quite tell if it was man or beast, but he thought it was human. He got out his hi-res binoculars, and slowly brought them up...it was a man no doubt, just kind of wandering around the area. He had a weapon slung over his back and was facing away from them. "OK, people, it is a man, he is armed, facing in the other direction, slow movement forward."

Their camo uniforms blended in nicely with the scenery, as did their camo helmets, and the green and some gray painted on their faces. If they moved slowly and stopped when this ignoramus turned, he shouldn't see them. Even their assault rifles were painted in camo, and had twigs and leaves taped across the muzzle of the weapon.

Whoever this clown was he wasn't in any hurry. They were within five hundred meters of him. He slowly turned around, and Dalbott raised his fist again. Everyone was motionless. The man was literally looking at them, but it was obvious that he didn't see a human shape anywhere in sight. He turned back around.

"OK, lads and lasses, once again, slow and easy." After about forty seconds, the guy turned around again, and again they froze. He began to walk slowly in their general direction but wasn't looking where they were, all in frozen mode. "Don't breath, people".

After about a hundred meters, he stopped and looked to the South. He then looked around in all directions, almost confused, but then Dalbott figured out what was going on. "Well, people", he whispered again, "I think Mother Nature is going to call on our friend." The Company wanted to laugh at that, but they all held back.

The man was now within three hundred meters of their position,  off to the Southeast. "Rogers, Kwan, Boucher, slowly move to our rear to cover the North, I think we might have something here."

The three Marines slowly, silently moved around to The North, to cover the rear of the Company, while they concentrated on this man to the South. They made no noise as they moved.

Dalbott had been a sniper when with the Kiwi Army. He had never fired a shot in anger but knew he could hit a stone with his sniper rifle from two thousand yards. This guy was almost next door. His German-made rifle could be used for such shots but also could be dialed back to travel at slower velocities. Such velocities were useful when one didn't want to merely kill his target. Dalbott had two clips of tranquilizer bullets with him. He also had a silencer on the end of his weapons. A silencer could hurt hitting a target at very long range, but wouldn't affect such an easy shot.

The man in front of him had looked around again, then behind himself, then squatted down like a baseball catcher.

Despite the tenseness of the situation, one of his Company had to be a smart-ass. "Cap'n at least let him finish his business before putting him to sleep." Dalbott knew who had said that, and knew where the man was. Since the target was facing away, he allowed a slow turn of his head to stick his tongue out at the Marine even though his helmet prevented the other man from seeing the gesture.

That apparently gave the man enough time to finish his business. He stood up, belted and zipped his pants, then began to walk away. When he took the second step, Dalbott fired for the man's rear end.

Not a sound was made, and the Captain could see he had put the tranquilizer round right in the guy's rump. The man fell immediately. He trotted towards the prone target while his Company formed a semi-circle facing North. The man was deep in sleep by the time Dalbott got there.

He secured the rifle from the man, and also found a sidearm similar to a Sig Sauer in his back belt buckle. He found two plastic restraints, and put them on the man's feet, and secured his hands behind him.

He was pretty sure that no one else was in the area, but he still didn't want to raise his voice. He could make out a Raptor just to his West, about two thousand yards away. "Command, Tenth Delta, we have a prisoner that has been tranquilized and secured, requesting Raptor retrieval", and he gave the coordinates.

Back in the command post, a Colonel plotted the coordinates and looked on his Dradis for the nearest Raptor. "Raptor 89, Ground Command, secured prisoner needs pick up", and he repeated the coordinates.

 

* * *

 

 

Starbuck heard their Raptor Call Sign, and immediately responded, "Copy Ground heading to the rendezvous, be there in thirty seconds."

"Maybe we can get some information out of this fucker, Adm...uh, Captain", Kelsey Graham caught herself. Starbuck smiled.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Blondie", and she headed her bird into the clearing.

Thirty seconds later she had her Raptor facing to the West, to keep the hatch door away from any unfriendly eyes that might be lurking to the North. She opened the hatch and saw a Colonel standing in front of him. The Colonel recognized her immediately.

"Admiral Thrace-Bond?" he said in wonder, "If I may ask, what in the bloody hell are you doing here." That made Kara grin.

"For now Colonel I'm only a Captain, and I'm here to help us get my little brother and his mates home." The smiled faded.

"Well get him, sir", he saluted, and Starbuck returned the favor, and closed the hatch behind her.


	3. Chapter Three

VII

 

 **Starbuck and her Raptor** crew delivered the unconscious prisoner to the _Adama._ He'd be medically checked out and when he came to would be fed, then grilled for information on what The Fleet was up against.

Her father had arrived back on the ship just after she had started her SAR mission and since he had been up all night, he was currently sleeping. Kara called her mother in their VIP quarters asking how her father was.

"He's pretty tired Kara", Judy Bond said honestly. "He was very wound up all night and just couldn't close his eyes. He's been asleep for about five hours, and I was planning to wake him soon."

"Any nightmares today?"

"Part of me would have expected one, after all the craziness surrounding Nick, but he's slept like a baby." For which Judith was extremely grateful.

"OK, when he wakes up, he'll want to know we have a prisoner, and as soon as he's awake and alert, we're going to try to get information out of him." Starbuck could almost feel the alarm in her mother over the phone line. She had told her parents long ago about her interrogation of Leoben on the _Gemenon Traveller,_ how she had tortured him, and how Laura Roslin had killed him.

"Mom", she said, almost with a smile, "trust me, we don't torture people anymore. We stopped that crap a long time ago, and I wouldn't stand for it now, anyway."

"I know, Kara", she said sadly, "and I know times were different during the flight to Earth, but it's something I was worried about."

"I understand, Mom. And I know dad wouldn't tolerate it either, so rest easy."

Judith Bond remembered the events of earlier that morning. "Oh I almost forgot, when you father is awake and before you take him to do official business, I need both of you here", she tried to stay calm. "There were some...developments overnight that Abby and I were made aware of and we need to make you aware of them, too."

"Developments?", Kara asked genuinely confused. "Concerning what, mom?"

"That will wait until you get here and dad's awake. This is something we have to talk about in person."

The Admiral trusted her mother with her life, and, confused or not, assented. "OK Mom, let me know when's he's up and about and I'll make my way over there."

 

* * *

 

By nightfall on Canceron, Captain Mathers, General Trevor, and their scout teams were within about five miles of Hades. They still had not encountered a soul, but Sundown had a feeling they were being watched.

When this half of The Fleet had landed on Aerilon, they had been cautious. Here in the Norther Continent, they had come loaded for bear, knowing the history behind Hades and the Norther people, who were known to be ruffians by trade. The city had a population, just before The Holocaust, of roughly twenty-five million people, was one of five cities of that size in the Norther. It had been a dirty, oppressive, rough-hewn place where there wasn't much law outside the Colonial Hall of Justice, which had been used primarily to move prisoners to or from the planet. It had been governed by a street mentality and not much else.

They expected to encounter that if and when they found survivors of The Holocaust.

Trevor had them bivouac for the evenings, with Sentries posted to their front, and with plenty of portable lighting in and surrounding the encampment. They would try to sleep, but it wouldn't be easy, and they knew it.

At sunrise the next morning, which was actually about 0130 Fleet Standard Time in this world, they prepared to move out for the day. There would be Raptors covering them overhead, and just in front of their movement northward, looking for any trouble. Raptors had been specifically assigned to the ground formation at least for the first scouting mission. It would give them a different perspective of the lay of the land, and it was felt that would help in planning when the full-scale scouting missions began. That had worked well on Aerilon, so they were following the script here.

After about two hours of cautious but steady forward movement, the city that was still far off when they had camped the night before began to reveal itself to the troops. Unlike Goath, this place was absolutely massive. It was more the size of Shanghai, or Mexico City, not like a medium-sized town back on Earth. The city stretched across the horizon from one end to the other.

On Aerilon, they had begun with forty Companies of scout teams, comprised of thirteen soldiers each. On Canceron, there were two hundred Companies, and that massive size couldn't even encompass the length of the city. They were tense, but they knew they had a job to do, and they would see it through.

 

* * *

 

Captain Nicholas Bond had been holed up for a few days in the empty cave he had found. He ventured out only at night, using the survival skills that had been drilled into his brain during intense survival training. He moved mostly at night. Again, with such long days, he was forced to do some movement but he was cautious about doing so.

He had found creatures like ants and other bugs to snack on to keep his food rations stretched out. Part of the training had been a thorough indoctrination of the plant and animal life on each planet. Every soldier had a large binder that carried information on each planet-what could be eaten, what couldn't; what kind of small animals might wander by that would make for a good meal, cooked only during daylight hours to draw less attention. They had even been taught how to keep smoke at a minimum from any fires they might need.

He hadn't had to resort to critters yet, but the ants and other insects were actually full of nutrition that could keep him going, even if he had to eat more than a few of them. He still had some rations. The bug variety were just in-between meal snacks at this time.

Dusk was starting to approach, and he was becoming more awake. This night he had planned to move westward to find new shelter and hoped that would bring him closer to rescue. Even after studying the cycles of each day on the planets, and where the sun or suns rose and set, it was hard to get oriented. When one was used to dawn in the east, and Dusk in the west, it could throw you off. That was another reason he hadn't moved for a few days, simply to orient himself with the planet.

"Even money Kara is up there in a Raptor", he said quietly, knowing how protective his older sister was of him and Abby. Even though he was in his early forties now, she still took her duties as the oldest sibling with incredible devotion. "Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Dad tried to jump in a cockpit. That's my old man", he said with a sad smile.

The sun finally went down. He got up, first moving to conceal the fact that anyone had been in the cave recently, and then made sure he had all his gear. Then he set out in a southwesterly direction. As he was walking another thought passed through his mind, _Natalie must be going through hell_ , which made him even more determined to get out of this fix.

 

* * *

 

Justin Bond awoke after about six hours and felt refreshed. He had slept soundly with no nightmares about Kara or about Nick and was feeling as good as he had felt since Kara had told them the news about Nick's Raptor.

Judith Bond had seen him coming around and asked Kara and Abby to be to their quarters in about thirty minutes. Brett had work to do within The Fleet, as head of Government Outreach and Assistance, so Abby would have to bring Katraine along. Katraine was going on nine now, and she was in school. But school was out for the day, and Abby had taken her daughter with her on the Raptor flight from the _Sagan_ to the _Adama._

Justin Bond came out of the bedroom and saw his wife had made him some fresh coffee. He smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead. "You know me too well, Mrs. Bond."

"You're just easy to read, Governor", she said with a wink, and he arched his eyebrows at her.

"I need to catch up on the latest with Lee in CIC so, after this, I'm headed out."

The first lady countered him on that. "Actually you aren't going up there right away", she said with a smile, and he gave her a quizzical look. "Kara and Abby will be over here in a few minutes, dear."

"What's up, Judy?"

She told him how Lee had found out some information the day before, and that it was something they needed to discuss, as a family.

"It can't be about Nick or his team?", the Governor thought aloud. "He'd just come out and tell us."

"It's not about Nick, per se, but it's very important that we discuss this as a family."

"OK, babe", he said with a resigned air, "you're The Boss."

 

* * *

 

Within fifteen minutes their daughters and their granddaughter were gathered in their VIP quarters. Judith then took the floor.

"I asked you all here because while you were on the surface, Justin, and while you were flying your mission Kara, we found out some information that we have to discuss."

Neither one still had the first inkling about what was going on.

"Now, this may seem odd at first but I need to bring one other person to this conversation."

Now the Governor and Admiral were really perplexed.

Abby got up and went to the door that led to the outer office. In walked Ensign Natalia Schrevrenko.

"Governor, Admiral, I'd like you to meet Ensign Natalia Schrevrenko, Engine Specialist, First Class."

The Governor got up and went over to the young lady and smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Ensign." Kara got up and introduced herself as well.

"Natalia is here for a reason, Justin, but I'd like her to explain it." She nodded at the Ensign.

"Yes, well, Governor, Admiral", she began in her accented Russian, but with some hesitation, "I know how this situation has hit your family very hard, and it's affected everyone in the fleet as well."

She paused and looked over at Judith, who smiled and nodded.

"Nicholas and I have been dating for the last ten months and we've become very close", she said, with the emotion building up in here again.

Justin Bond was speechless at that moment, as this was the last thing he had expected. Kara, however, had a different reaction.

Remembering how her adopted parents had come to her side when she was facing a crisis during the war, the emotions of that day came flooding back. She stood up, went over to Natalia, grabbing her hands, standing the young woman up as well.

Kara looked into her eyes, seeing an image of herself on that fateful day more than twenty years ago. Then without warning, she smiled warmly and embraced her as tears started to come down her face.

"Ensign", she said quietly. "Good God, to know you've been suffering alone like this." Natalia was momentarily confused, but the sincerity of the Admiral's actions hit her at once, and she surrendered to the hug, with tears coming out of her eyes as well. Kara embraced her as if she had found a long-lost sister, which, of course, she had.

Justin Bond was coming around, having felt like lightning bolt had hit him. He slowly stood up and looked dazed at his wife, who laughed a bit. He slowly made his way over to Kara and the Ensign.

"Natalia", he said, and like with Judith Bond, she asked him to call her Natalie. "Natalie, I'm so sorry you were carrying this burden alone, my dear. No one should suffer such heartache by themselves."

"Thank you, Governor", she said after breaking the embrace with Kara, whose face was lit up with a wonderful smile, realizing what this moment meant.

"Natalie, come sit down here next to me", Justin Bond asked her, and she complied. "Do you know how Kara became our daughter?"

"I know some of it, of course. Nick goes on about you all the time, Admiral", she smiled at Kara. "But I don't think I know the, shall we say, intimate details."

Kara then explained about what she had gone through during the war; how she had terribly hurt President Bond, and how he and Judith Bond had come to her aid. "They literally saved me, Natalie, in every way possible. For years I had bottled up so many things and suffered alone. They taught me that I didn't need to do that anymore." Kara looked straight at her. "You've only been dealing with this for a few days by yourself, and that's a few days too long. You don't have to suffer by yourself."

Abby then told them how Natalia had no family left, that it was only her.

Justin Bond shook his head at hearing that. "Natalia, that isn't true any longer. I imagine Judith has already said this to you, but I will as well: you have a family now. We may not have adopted you but that doesn't matter. You obviously love Nick very much, and that makes you special to us. You are now, and always will be part of this family."

"But, what if Nick is...", she dare not say the word.

He grabbed her one hand. "It doesn't matter how this plays out, you're a Bond now, whether any certificate says so or not. We accept you as one of our own."

The validation from Governor Bond had made her smile broadly. Unlike when Judith or Kara had rushed to her, this time, she turned towards the Governor, smiled, and slowly embraced him. "Spasibo", she said in her native language.

Abby got up and walked Katraine towards Natalia. "Katraine, I'd like you to meet your new aunt, Natalia."

Natalia looked over at the young girl, went up to her. Katraine looked at her, and as a child would, she simply said. "It's nice to meet you, Aunt Natalie." Natalie embraced the girl with a warm hug.

She had a family again.

 

* * *

 

VIII

 

 **General Seth Trevor** had his scout teams about a mile inside the Hades city limits. They had only seen a few people, but those had run away before there was any real contact. They had been in the city for two days now, and their nerves were a little thin-not for what had happened, but because nothing had happened. They thought there would be more of a welcoming party in this town.

Raptors and Falcons flew overhead every so often, simply to keep the ground troops notified of anything that might sneak up on them. Nothing had so far.

It was late in the Afternoon on Canceron when the General received a call on the radio unit within his helmet. "Ground Ops, Raptor 656. General, I have a fairly large group of people moving your direction, about two thousand yards out. I have your location fixed, and they're to your One o'clock. Hi-res glasses show no weapons apparent at this time."

"Six-Five-Six, how big is 'fairly large'"? He said with mild amusement.

"Rough guess, sir, is about perhaps two hundred."

"Raptor 656, I copy that, stay overhead and monitor." The General then turned into the inter-unit frequency and informed his forces. "All units, large force estimated at two hundred just to my One o'clock", he then gave orders to different units to close near his position as he moved southwest towards where this crowd was coming from.

In about ten minutes, the two groups were coming down what had to be one of the main thoroughfares in Hades. It was a good thousand feet wide, looking akin to the approaches to the _Champs-Élysées_ in Paris. The group was moving towards his troops, and they didn't seem to be in a hurry. The General had set up defense-in-depth behind their positions and to their flanks so that they wouldn't be surprised by any unexpected movement.

At about five hundred yards, a man near the center of the crowd in the front pulled out a white flag or handkerchief from his pocket and raised it over his head.

Cory Mathers had her hi-res eyes out. "General, I guess that flag is the same just about everywhere, isn't it?"

"It is, Captain", he got on the radio and told his troops to stay sharp, despite the parlay flag. The General carried a white cloth for just such occasions and pulled it out, to indicate that, yes, we see your flags, and that I'm the guy you want to meet with.

The man with the flag turned around, and apparently spoke to the others, and they all stopped. He and a woman that was with him continued forward. Seeing that, the General had Captain Mathers accompany him after telling everyone else to stand-to for the moment.

In about three minutes they were within twenty yards of each other and the two natives stopped, as did Trevor and Mathers.

They looked at each other for a few moments. The man seemed to be about six foot three, and built like an Ox; the woman was about three inches taller than Cory but had a very rough-hewn look on her face.

After the staredown lasted for a few moments, Trevor spoke in Caprican, which had been the Universal language of The Colonies. "Hands out to the side if you please, are you armed?"

The man smiled. "Well, you obviously are, so why shouldn't I be?" Trevor actually laughed slightly.

"Yes, we are. But we are soldiers from the Colonial Government. My name is General Seth Trevor. This is Captain Cory Mathers."

"It's nice to meet you General", the man said evenly. "Actually we are not armed at the moment. May we approach your location?"

Trevor nodded. "Slow and easy if you please?" The twosome approached to meet face-to-face. Upon the closer inspection, the man seemed to be in his fifties and the woman not much younger than he was.

"General Trevor I am Blade Scoggins; this hear is my wife, Sierra." The woman still looked less than thrilled to be there.

"I'm glad to meet you Blade, Sierra", he was keeping an eye on them, and he knew how to get to his weapon quickly, so he felt perfectly safe. Cory wished she had the ice water in her veins as he had.

"General, what can we do for you today?", the man asked. "If I recall we haven't seen any Colonial troops since the nukes fell when I was a young man. Why are you showing up now?"

"That will take a lot of explaining, Mr. Scroggins, but I'm willing to share that information with you bit by bit. But I'll have a few questions of my own first, if I may?"

"Be my guest, General", Blade said in relaxed tones. "What can I answer for you?"

"Can you tell me, as close as you can, what the current population of Hades is. Just your estimate will do, sir."

Scroggins thought for a moment. "This is a big city, sir, as you know, but right now, I'd say there are, oh, maybe two million souls throughout, give or take a few either side."

"Thank you kindly, Mr. Scroggins", and he smiled at the man. "Secondly, are  there armed citizens here as well?"

"Yes, there are, sir", he affirmed, "how many I could not tell you."

"Is there a government entity of any sort here presently?"

"A formal government? No", he smiled again, "but I lead the largest faction in Hades. Right now, things are pretty peaceful. Why do you ask?

"Because it will be our intention to restore Hades under Colonial Administration", he paused for a moment. "That won't happen right away, but that is the intention of my Government."

Finally, Sierra spoke up "And what government is that General", she said with wariness in her eyes.

"The Government of The Twelve Colonies of Kobol, ma'am." There was a finality to that statement that he had intended. He knew there was no current government, but he did represent the entity that was looking to establish a new Colonial Government.

"Some people may not like that, General", the man said without rancor. "I mean you no harm but just stating a fact."

"I appreciate your candor, sir", Trevor said calmly.

Sundown was looking at both of them, _These two guys would be great poker players, Lordy!_

"Do you have proof of your bonafides, General?"

"I do, in fact, sir", and handed over to Blade hi-res binoculars. "I want you to look into the wester sky, just a few degrees above the Horizon. With these glasses, you will see the largest Battlestar ever constructed and three other main ships of The Fleet that are here. All told, at this time, there are about eighteen vessels of different size orbiting."

Scoggins gave him a sidewards glance, then took the specs, and looked in that direction. He could clearly see the _Laura Roslin_ and the three DSE's parked near her. "That's a big fleet Admiral, and I remember those Battlestars. That one does look bigger than I remember them."

"Just for your information, what is above Canceron is one-quarter of our fleet. We have two Battlestars of that size in the Colonial System currently, another three of those larger vessels that you have seen: fifty-six ships in all, carrying approximately two-thousand of what used to be called Vipers, but now are called Falcons, and around nine-hundred Raptors. The fleet also contains six Missile ships, with more nuclear weapons than the Colonies possessed before the war."

He wanted to overawe the man a little and it seemed to have worked. Blade actually coughed a little in hearing those numbers, which made Sierra roll her eyes.

"If that is true, General, I reckon you can take this here rock."

"Our intention isn't to take it, as it were, but to rebuild Colonial Civilization on the Twelve Colonies. As I said, it will take some time to explain all of this to you and your colleagues and rivals here, but we have the time."

With that, Mr. Scroggins invited the General and Captain inside a building near them, so they could sit and talk some more.

 

* * *

 

Nick Bond had been on the ground for six days now. He was still eating some rations, and some bugs; he still had a little water left that he brought with him; he had even killed a squirrel-like creature and had eaten it one afternoon.

He wasn't in great shape, and he knew it. The injuries to his buttock and his right arm were draining a lot of his strength, and he was worried about infection setting in from the shrapnel that had once been in the wound-and possibly still could be in the wound in his gluteus. He had heard some distant human noises, but what he could ascertain, they had not been friendlies.

With such little night time, he could only move a few hours a day, and his wound below his torso was slowing him down more and more. He constantly kept his assault rifle in front of him, and two of the sidearms he had close by as well. He had also put a silencer on all three, which would help mute any noise should he get into a scrap.

Nick had seen Raptors off in the distance but he knew he couldn't send a flare up, as it could bring the bad guys faster than the good guys, so he kept going.

It was late in the evening-the sun would go down in about ninety minutes. He was holed up in another small cave that pocketed the mountainside and offered protection. He had just taken a swig of water when he heard voices in the distance. He came alert at once.

It was twilight, so he felt a little safer sticking his head out to see if he could figure out what was happening. He prayed it was his colleagues.

A loud voice startled him. It wasn't really close, but close enough to alert him that somebody was in the vicinity. He bent on one knee, making himself a smaller target, and pulled out his hi-res eyes, flipping on the night-vision setting. He waited for a human voice again to let him locate the sounds.

"Brig!" a voice cried, what seemed to be directly North of Captain Bond, "get over here, you idiot! I think I might have found some tracks here!" Nicholas hadn't been in that area. He guessed that, perhaps, it had been UED forces.

"Maybe it's the pilot from that damned bird we shot down!", Brig said to the other man. "We still can't find that frackin' thing, but we know it crashed, that's for sure."

The two men kept talking back and forth, the other one apparently with the name of "Strap", which was probably a nickname. And the sound kept heading towards him, not away from him. Nick Bond still couldn't see them, so he moved into some tall thicket West of the cave, and just inside the current treeline he was in, and brought the goggles to his face. The men got louder.

 _There!_ Nick said to himself. He could see them moving just a little northeast of his position, and probably about seven hundred yards away, on the other side of the opening between two tree lines. Looking at them they seemed to have what looked like shotguns, but no binoculars were apparent. They were seemingly out here almost blind in the dusk.

But they kept coming.

They were now on his side of the opening now, among the trees but still heading South and a little East of his position. He had been rotating on his belly, slowly rotating towards them, keeping them in his line-of-sight. Without warning, a bird took off and screeched just to his right, making a fearful racket. Nick stiffened, and the two men looked his way.

 _Don't even twitch a muscle, Captain,_ Nick said to himself. They were still heading Southeast of his location.

"Strap, it was just a frackin' bird, for god's sake", Brig laughed at his companion, "you get scared too fast."

"Maybe it was, Brig" the other man retorted, "but if we catch him dead or alive, we get that nice big reward that The Crown said he'd pay us!". Nick stored that piece of information in the back of his mind. And then they turned west, directly towards him.

Within five minutes, they were about seven-hundred feet, directly east of Axman's location. Nick knew they would eventually cross back, and hoped they would cross back to the north before reaching him. He was also checking the other directions around him just to make sure this wasn't a set-up. He saw no other movement.

Brig spoke up. "Aw, crap, Strap, we ain't going to find anything out here, it's getting too damn dark."

He heard Strap audibly sigh. "Yeah, you're right my friend, no reward tonight", the continued heading south...and were coming directly at him.

Nick slowly picked up his rifle. He could see the two against the fading light of the evening. He knew what he needed to do.

His weapon made six quick _thumps_ as the bullets exited the silencer. The two men never knew what hit them. He had hit them both center-mass in the middle of their chests. They were dead before they hit the ground.

Nick stayed still for a few moments, checked every direction, then crawled to where the two men were. He grabbed their shotguns and buried them under some leaves about five-hundred feet away. They also had some sidearms and took those. Then he took more leaves and covered the bodies of the two men as much as he could, then he again headed west.

 

* * *

 

Captain Thomas Dalbott and his Special Ops team had been making slow but steady progress eastward through the Caprican Mountains. After seeing the lone wolf who they had captured and turned over for questioning, they hadn't seen another soul. He admitted that whoever was up here, most weren't stupid. They too were trying to keep a low profile. He was sure they saw the firepower overhead and had mostly pulled in their reins. They had gone about fifteen miles into the range in seven days.

They hadn't seen the bad guys, but they hadn't seen any of the three good guys, either.

It was late morning, and he had his team spread out horizontally from North to South. He had changed from the East-West deployment the day before, thinking that if the Raptor were up here, they had to be getting close to it, and wanted a more spread formation. They had gone about three-fourths of a mile that day when one of his Company's members got on the radio.

"Boss, Kwan, possible debris sighting to my immediate front, looks like about a thousand yards. I'm getting a glint of sunlight off of something." Kwan was to his left, perhaps a quarter-mile inside the tree line.

"Southern scouts hold your line, everyone else moves in towards Kwan, everyone keeps pushing forward." The detail continued eastward, with the bulk of his troops converging on where Sergeant Kwan was.

He got to his subordinate within five minutes. "Kwan, SitRep?"

"Sir", he said peering in front of him, "I think we're within about five-hundred yards of where I saw the glint of light. Clouds are over now, so it's been obscured."

"And there's a lot of thickets ahead", he thought aloud. "OK, we continue forward."

They went about another two hundred yards and then the sun came out. There was a bright reflection of light that marked the area. But it was unmistakable what they could see.

"Company, Dalbott", he said with a mixture of excitement and sadness, "we have the Raptor in sight. Continue to proceed with caution."

Within two minutes they were at the sight, and Dalbott had his forces form a ring around the bird while he moved in for inspection.

As Nick Bond had done seven days earlier, he raised the hatch. The site he saw was even more gruesome than what Nick had seen as the bodies had started to decompose. He had to pause to keep from retching, but the urge passed.

"Company, two dead inside", he said morosely. They had all been given photographs of the three crew members of the ship, and even with decomposition in progress, he could identify both the deceased, although, in the case of Rick Londhal he went more on hair color than facial features, which had been all but obliterated in the crash. But he was satisfied with his ID. "Confirm Lieutenant Londhal and Lieutenant Marisio KIA", he was talking as he moved to them. "No Dog Tags on either."

He came out of the Raptor, the troops with him all looked sullen and dejected, Patrick Kwan came up to him. "Thinking Axman took their tags, sir?"

"Someone did, and the logical choice would be Nick", he said, still grim-faced. "Could mean our boy is alive."

"The question is, is he on the lam or was he abducted?". Kwan was equally as grim.

"If he had time to check the ship out and grab the tags, I'd bet he's on the loose, and we have to go on that supposition, Sergeant."

Dalbott had everyone relax a little but keeping their eyes peeled. He turned away and called General Grayson about their discovery.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Four

IX

 **On the bridge of** the _William Adama_ , Lee was keeping abreast of the situation. The prisoner had been groggy for the last twenty-four hours as the effects of the tranquilizer began to wear off. The Doctor thought he'd be good to interrogate by the end of the day.

Lee was getting ready to step away from CIC for a few minutes, when General Grayson's voice boomed over the speakers, "Adama Actual, Grayson."

"Grayson, Actual, SitRep General?"

"Sir, our Special Ops team to the North has found the Raptor." He could hear the grimness in his General's voice.

"Any sign of our people?" The bridge crew held their breaths.

"Yes, sir, two KIA, one unaccounted for." Lee felt his stomach knot up. "Confirm the two KIA as Lieutenant Londhal and Lieutenant Marisio." Everyone in CIC instantly deflated with the news and physically slumped in their seats.

"I copy, General, two KIA, one MIA", he would never get used to losing his people, and he thanked the gods for that. "Any sign of the Captain?"

"Negative sir, but it's a good bet he may be on the run. We didn't find any Dog Tags on the two KIA. Nick probably grabbed them before high-tailing it."

"Copy, Kendrick, will vector Raptors to pick up our people, and to secure any items off the dead bird, Adama out."

He looked over at Brevin Cross and didn't have to say a word to his XO. Cross left, rounded up two Marines so they could inform the families of the two dead pilots who had, like the Bond's, come aboard the Flagship. He didn't want to do this, but he would do his duty out of respect for his fallen comrades.

 

* * *

 

Starbuck, Blondie, and Sunshine had been on patrol and heard the call about the KIA and one MIA. She was one of the closer Raptors in the area and vectored her bird to the crash site. She knew Nick was MIA but she dreaded the moment nonetheless.

She landed and headed to Captain Dalbott, who was sitting on a tree trunk about twenty yards East of the crash site.

Kara saluted him, "Sir, Captain Thrace-Bond, reporting as ordered."

Dalbott smiled at her despite the situation, "Has anyone ever gone from Admiral to Captain that fast, uh, Captain?" He was trying to relax Starbuck, who was, like all of them none too happy with the situation.

"Could be, sir", she gave him a small smile, "you guys have any clue what you think happened to Nick?"

Dalbott shook his head, "None really Admiral", he slipped back to her real rank, "We found some bloodstains about fifteen yards South of the Raptor. There's no way the KIA were out there-you'll see why when we grab their bodies, so Nick was at least wounded."

Kara then turned towards the unpleasant task at hand, "I've got some body bags with us. I'm going to transport their remains back to the _Adama,_ sir."

"Thank you Starbuck", he said, honoring his colleague, "It isn't pretty, but our people should be taken care of."

"They will be, Captain", she said with more grimness in her voice.

Sunshine and Blondie proceeded out with the body bags. Kara had taken a look at the remains of the two Officers. Like Dalbott she had almost vomited but kept it together. She knew for certain Nick wasn't in there, but it didn't make her feel any better.

Dalbott's men put the remains in the body bags, and they came out of the hatch.

When they were visible, Kara came to attention and commanded those present, "Ten-Hut, render honors to Lieutenant Rick Londhal, and Lieutenant Annabel Marisio". Everyone came to rigid attention, saluting their fallen comrades. As the bodies were stored in the cargo hold of the Raptor Kara saluted Captain Dalbott and started walking towards her bird. She stopped suddenly and looked around in all directions, fear etched on her face.

_Where are you, little brother?_

 

* * *

 

After the three families onboard had been notified of the latest news, Lee headed down to Sick Bay to check on their prisoner. Now that he had two of his people he wanted some answers.

Doctor Priva Patel had been told The Boss was coming. She got a quick update on their prisoner/patient, then waited for The Admiral.

She saluted him as he entered the area, "Admiral Adama, I heard the news about our people", she said sullenly, "it's terrible but it's also a relief if you'll pardon me, Sir."

Lee nodded his head, "I know what you mean, Doctor. But we still have one out there." He turned toward where the prisoner was. "Condition?"

"He fully awake now. He's obviously scared but was very hungry, so we gave him plenty of water and he's had a good meal. He's ready to be interrogated."

Lee tried to keep the anger out of his eyes as he approached the man, but it wasn't easy. The prisoner saw him approaching and sat upright in his bed.

"I'm Admiral Lee Adama, Commander of the Battlestar _William Adama_ , who the hell are you?"

  
The man actually looked defiant when Lee said that.

"You run the family business, is this the family Battlestar?" He said with a snort of laughter.

UED had rightfully abandoned any shred of torture being used when interrogating prisoners but they knew, as Lee did, that the threat of being tortured could be a powerful tool.

Lee lunged forward and grab the man by his hospital gown, "Listen, you little frack", his face mere inches from the other man's face, "our Raptor was shot down; two of my people are dead, and one is missing. Do you think I give a damn what happens to you?" Lee looked as if he would kill the man right there.

The man's eyes went wide, "I meant nothing by it, Admiral, honest!", he said, suddenly afraid for his very life, "I won't give you no trouble!"

Lee shoved him back into his bed, "Let's start over again, shall we? I've introduced myself, and it's only courteous if you do the same?" The look on Lee's face hadn't changed.

"My name is Enoch Zell, Admiral", he said, suddenly compliant.

"What were you doing out there when my people captured you, and who the hell do you work for?"

I was scouting, Admiral", he said, with fearful sweat pouring from his skin, "I'm part of _The Kingdom,_ and I work for The Crown."

"What or who the hell is The Crown may I ask?"

"The Crown-no one knows his real name, but he the Supreme Ruler of _The Kingdom."_

Lee then visibly relaxed, turned to the Doctor and nodded. In came two large, burly men, who looked like Professional Wrestlers. They were also consummate interrogators. Zell's eyes went wide and turned white as a ghost. The size of the men had truly intimidated him, which was the way Lee had wanted it.

 

* * *

 

General Trevor and Blade Scroggins had held more than a few interesting discussions over the past several days in the ruins of Hades. It was no longer just two on each side; the man from Hades had brought in six of his top lieutenants, and Trevor had brought in a like number of Captains to be part of the entreaties.

Seth Trevor had shown the man the part of the fleet orbiting around Canceron. He had mentioned the Colonial Government but hadn't gone much further. The Aerilonian wasn't here to gain trust, as he had done on his homeworld; he was here to inform the people of this city with such a notorious reputation about what was to come. He felt this was a good time to lay all his cards on the table.

"Mr. Scroggins, as you know you have seen part of our fleet circling this planet. I have told you that it represents the Colonial Government. I think I need to lay out for you _exactly_ what that entails and what is coming for the Twelve Colonies.

Blade was no dummy; he may be a ruffian, which he certainly was, but he noticed a slight inflection change in the General's voice.

"That sounds a little...ominous, General Trevor if you'll pardon me saying that", he said without any overt rancor and actually being quite curious about what was to come.

"It isn't ominous unless you want it to be, sir", Trevor said evenly. "But I want to be honest with you about what is coming in the near future."

"Go on General."

"We have told you that we're Colonial Soldiers; that is partly true. I am a native of Aerilon, as I told you-was born there. But until recently, I hadn't been there in years, thanks to the Cylons."

"You haven't mentioned where you have been all this time, sir, come to think of it?" He raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Blade, you were introduced to Captain Mathers when we first met", and the other man nodded, "Did you notice something...well, a little different about her?"

Blade had noticed, "I did notice. I assumed that was due to the radiation, as I've heard that can affect children."

"You are right about the effects of radiation, no doubt", he smiled, "but that has nothing to do with that. You see, Captain Mathers and many of my troops are not from the Twelve Colonies." The room went still.

"What the frack are you talking about?", the man said in wonder, "there aren't other Humans around?"

"Well, that's what we thought, Mr. Scroggins", the General said casually, "That is until we found Earth."

Scroggins wasn't religious, but virtually anyone who had grown up on The Colonies before the war had heard the myth about Earth, and his eyes went wide at hearing the word.

" _Earth?_ General, don't frack with me, there is no such thing."

"And further, Blade", Seth continued without skipping a beat, "this fleet that is in this System: it was entirely built on Earth, and our mission is to re-populate The Colonies and to re-establish Human civilization here."

Scroggins became incensed, "You come here, eat my food, drink our water, and you're telling me nonsense like this! I'm not stupid, General!"

"No, I don't think you are, Blade", Trevor said honestly, "I really don't. I have no reason to lie. It's estimated that we lost around twenty billion souls when the Cylons hit here. I've also been through a second war with those mechanical bastards that cost the lives of almost three billion more human beings on Earth. That conflict led to the decision to come back to The Colonies", he paused for a moment, "The Civilian Governor of The Fleet, was once the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth. It was his idea to build this fleet."

"I'm going to need some fracking proof of this, Admiral", the man said, still simmering, "before I could ever believe this tall tale."

"I understand that Blade", Trevor said calmly, "But I will tell you that the second fleet of fifty-six ships, if not more, will be leaving Earth shortly. The Fleet is under the banner of what is known as United Earth Defense. When we left Earth just over four of their years ago, we were in the middle of a process that would deliver a fleet of _eight hundred_ ships _._ And I'm not lying. This fleet is the first of continuous fleets that will be coming and going from here and the other planets for decades, if not hundreds of years. We mean business. We want to make The Twelve Colonies strong again. Mankind has gone through two disastrous wars against The Cylons and we need to make Human civilization strong here again."

Scroggins was speechless. He just sat there, shaking his head. He could read people pretty well and from what he was reading this man was deadly serious.

"What does that mean for Hades and Canceron? Are you going to mine all our Tylium to feed this fleet, like before?"

"Tylium is obsolete", the General said dismissively, "the fleet runs on what is called EM-Drive and it doesn't require any fuel of any kind, including Tylium."

"Then what happens to Canceron?"

"We change the landscape of the desert, and make sure that this place isn't a refuge for the lawless anymore." Trevor looked right in the man's eyes.

Scroggins knew his people couldn't fight millions of arriving people, but he needed to talk to the other factions about what they could do.

 

* * *

 

X

 **Nick Bond was in bad shape.** An infection was forming where the shrapnel had hit him in his butt and it was becoming more painful and more infected each day. His crudely-set arm ached almost just as bad. After nine days on the run, he was out of rations and down to very little water. When healthy, his six-foot frame normally carried about two hundred and five pounds. Now, he knew he was below one-eighty.

He needed to be rescued or he was going to die out here.

In the last three days, he had only moved about a thousand yards. He just physically couldn't do much more. He tried to eat berries, bugs and the occasional small animal, but as his wounds worsened he was being sapped of energy.

It was the middle of the night, the one time of day when he tried to move further west. It was close to pitch black that night, and he felt a sense of protection. But he still moved cautiously.

He had been going for no more than thirty minutes when he heard a loud commotion almost directly to his North, and it sounded like it was getting closer. The closer it got, the louder it got. Nick slid a little further West. To his left, he heard even more of what were clearly voices. They were boisterous voices and that told him they weren't UED forces.

He scanned the area, looking for some cover. Even though he had used charcoal to hide his face and his cammo uniform would blend him in, this sounded like a large group coming from two different directions, and he didn't want to take a chance.

To his left, he saw what looked like a small opening about ten yards away but couldn't see any further away than that and headed that direction. He took a chance and turned his flashlight on its lowest brightness for a quick look in the tunneled opening. Nothing was in there.

Captain Bond crawled in feet-first, with his weapon on the ground in front of him. Like before the was some verge near the opening, and he quickly tried to mask the opening to make it blend in. The voices were getting closer. He could tell there were at least forty or fifty people headed this way. He saw the first glimpses of lights being carried by the strangers, but not the strangers themselves.

Fifteen minutes went by. He peaked out through the grass, leaves, and twigs he had built up in front of the entrance and could see at least fifty different flashlights being held, from about three hundred yards to his west and about the same distance to his east. This was definitely a hunting party. And they weren't looking for critters.

The voices became clearer and were in Caprican. "How the frack do the Bosses think we can find one measly person in this blackness?", one of them complained.

"Scout stop your bellyaching", another said. "Orders are orders. We're to find this guy and take him prisoner if we can, and kill 'em if we can't."

As was often the case, Nick had tried to stay near small breaks in the forest that stretched on this part of the mountain. The human shapes became visible as they approached the tree line opposite him. He was about one hundred yards inside the Southern tree line.

 

* * *

 

"Command, Raptor 389, I see movement in front of me, about three miles, a bunch of people with flashlights. Guarantee you those aren't our troops."

Back at the Command Post, Colonel Konrad Otter had the night watch. There was a picket line of Special Ops forces traveling West-to-East in the mountains for interdiction, but somehow there was a gap. That could mean other troops had been taken out or the line had been broken for some other reasons. A group this large shouldn't have been able to get South of the cammo demarcation line.

"Three-Eight Niner, estimate strength of group?"

"Command, hard to tell from this far out but I'd say at least fifty. They're headed South and spread out. They're looking for someone."

Otter knew who that "someone" probably was. It told him that more than likely, whoever controlled the mountain hadn't found Nicholas Bond, and it also told them that they wanted to find the Captain. He hoped that meant that the young man was still alive.

Otter knew it would stir things up, but a message needed to be sent to whoever was up there, and it had to be clear.

"Three-Eight Niner", he said almost immediately, "Calling in support for you, stand by." Within thirty seconds, he was back to the Raptor, "Three-Eight Niner, Raptors 1105 and 57 approaching from your west, when in formation, clear to engage hostiles."

"Yes, Sir!", the man at the controls said with pleasure.

 

* * *

 

The group to the north of Nicholas Bond was just breaking the tree line, and some were coming right at him. The loudness of their voices drowned out another sound that was approaching. Perhaps they didn't hear it, but Nick heard it and recognized it instantly.

_Raptors!  
_

No sooner had he thought the word than a hail of bullets and rockets streaked towards the people nearing him. Two Raptors had swung in from the south, and one on the Northern Ridgeline, blasting anything that moved. Like a scythe, most of the people in front of them went down like ninepins, never having a chance to even raise their weapons. A few brave souls fired back, but it only hastened their deaths. Perhaps five or six retreated back into the forest to the north, and Nick could see they weren't stopping to figure out what had happened.

 

* * *

 

"Command, we got most of the bad guys, a few fleeing Northward back under the camouflage netting."

Otter smiled, and those in the Command Tent broke out in quiet cheers, slapping the Colonel on the back. It was combat, which they had wanted to avoid, but after the bloody nose they had taken going on ten days ago, it felt damn good to the men and woman in that tent.

Unfortunately for Nick, enough survivors had fled in the other direction that he knew the Raptors wouldn't chance a landing if more partisans showed up. He wasn't angry, and he understood how the ROE's worked. He was just glad that he was given another day to live.

 

* * *

 

After Admiral Lee Adama had been awakened briefly and updated on the Raptor action against this large group of people, he went back to bed. He would get more information in the morning, and he would trust his people to handle it until he came on duty.

He got up around 0630 Fleet Time, and by 0700 he was at CIC. Commander Cross had come on duty before him and filled him in on the action overnight: overflies of the area counted thirty-eight dead, all armed partisans, and more may have been killed. There was no sign of Nicholas Bond. But like Colonel Otter the night before Lee concluded that they had to be looking for the downed Pilot.

At 0900, he asked for the Bond family to be summoned so he could let them know what happened, and what his views on it were. The Governor and his entire family, Natalia Schrevrenko with them, were seated by 0930.

"So that's the breakdown of what happened", Lee said after concluding his brief, "Again, we're going on some suppositions here, but Grayson, Otter, and the XO all think it means the same thing-they were looking for Nick."

The family was calm hearing the news. They had gotten over the emotional storm that had first hit them when Nick was reported missing. There were simply wanting news, one way or another, if he was still alive.

Characteristically, Kara spoke up first, "Lee, what's the Status of the Special Ops forces?"

"Captain Dalbott's Lead team has turned southward and westward. Finding the Raptor gives us an approximate starting point of where Nick was, and out conclusions that Nick is heading South or West. The southernmost Spec. Ops teams have seen not a single person. They're beginning to move northward and westward to join forces with Dalbott."

"That's still a helluva lot of acreage out there, Admiral", the Governor said almost clinically. "More eyes will help but Nick could be anywhere by now."

"That's true sir", Lee acknowledged, "All the troops were trained on orienting to the sunrise/sunset patterns here, and he's as smart as they come. We have to go on the assumption that he's trying to get back to us. "

"That combat last night still took place about fifteen miles in the mountains, Lee", Kara agreed, "I had a peek at the search map in the War Room before coming over-the area is probably fifty square miles, if not more."

Judith Bond spoke up next, "Admiral, not to sound ghoulish, but are we going to check out the dead people up close? Maybe to get more of a clue as to who they are?"

"Ma'am, when the Spec Ops reach that point-and currently, they're about six miles East of where the action happened, then I plan to send in a few Raptors under their protection to see what we can find." He smiled in spite of himself. Judith Bond may have never served, but she had been around the military long enough, first with her husband in the Air Force, and with Kara and Nick in UED, that she could hold her own in such a discussion.

Finally, and somewhat timidly, Natalia spoke up, "Admiral, sir?"

"Yes, Ensign?", Lee turned to face the young woman.

"So, the truth is we still don't know if Nick is alive or dead, am I correct?" She, like the rest of them, was over the hysterics. She said the words with a certain dread, but she simply wanted to know.

"Natalia, that is correct", he said, hardly wanting to look at her, "We haven't seen anything either way to know for sure. My guess and my hope are that that scouting party we interdicted last night thinks he's alive and we have to go on that assumption."

"How long til the Spec. Ops team get to the location of the bodies, Lee?", Justin Bond thought some clues would be found when that moment happened. "Maybe as they sweep west, even before reaching the dead, we might get more clues."

Lee nodded emphatically, "That's our thought, too, Governor. The Spec. Op forces will be spread out about five miles across, north-to-south when they really start to turn west. At this point, barring no interference, we're hoping they'll be in that area by this time tomorrow morning."

 

* * *

 

The Next Afternoon

Captain Dalbott's team had begun the turn westward and had met up with the lead element of the other Special Ops forces that had been reconnoitering to the South. Now, the entire Spec Op forces would move to try and pinch in from three sides to locate Captain Nicholas Bond.

The Captain in Charge of the Southern unit was Grey Solis, a thirty-five-year-old that was born on Caprica a few years before The Holocaust. He had no real memory of this world, but his parents had told him about their lives there. They were both back on Earth, living in New Caprica. He had always wanted to return to his place of birth. He and Dalbott had done most of their training for this mission together.

The lead groups, once joined, began moving to the west, to fill in the area between the tree lines, while the forces further toward the west, also pinched in from the south and the north. Their hope was they would find the captain, one way or another, within their net.

"At least you guys found something, Tom", the other Captain lamented, "Yes, it wasn't pleasant, I know, but we haven't seen anything more than a bird or some animals. Makes the day drag."

"I'd have traded places with you, Gray", Dalbott said honestly, "It wasn't a pretty sight. In fact, the bodies were taken away in a Raptor by Admiral Thrace-Bond."

That made Solis turn his head, "You're kidding me?"

"No, and she was wearing Captain's Bars", he confirmed, "she put herself under Abdullah for any recon missions. She handled it like a pro, but you can see this is eating her up."

"I don't blame her, Thomas", he said dejectedly, "It's eating me up, and I hardly know the man."

They had been going for about two hours when a call came in from some of Gray's troops to the Southwest, "Frazier, Solis, Sir, we've found two bodies about four hundred yards inside the treeline, both were shot."

The two Captains traded a look, "Think Captain Bond popped them", Solis said with a sideways glance at his colleague.

"I hope to hell that's what it means." The call had come about five miles west and south of where the two Captains were, and they knew they couldn't be there by nightfall. Solis had his subordinate call in the location to a Raptor to secure the bodies for examination aboard the _Adama._

Sergeant Frazier made another call, "Looks to be a professional job, sir, both victims shot three times, center-mass. Whoever did this had military training."

Both Captains felt a surge of hope.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Five

XI

 **The fever that was consuming** Captain Nicholas Bond was increasing. He had surmised that a piece of the composite metal must still be in his rear-end, and it was festering the wound. His arm would make it, he knew, but it was getting harder and harder to stand up and walk, as the effects of the wound in his butt had spread down his leg.

He had gone over the scene where the Raptors had blown so many of these men, and a few women, to Kingdom Come. Their shotguns wouldn't do him much good, but some of them had sidearms, and he had found loads of ammo for the make of weapon and had added that to his arsenal, taking two of the weapons with him.

He was moving almost exclusively during the night hours, which, in fact, only lasted about four hours this time of year. With the fever and the injury, it was slow going, but he kept his thoughts on Natalia and his family to keep going.

His big worry is that the fever and the infection probably would affect his sense of judgment and direction before too long, and that frightened him. He needed to either find his way out of the mountains, or be rescued, and soon. He was about a mile or so West of where the firefight had taken place, and he had no idea that the Western edge of the Spec Ops team was back there. He had never thought about turning eastward. He kept moving toward his own lines.

 

* * *

 

Lee and Kara went to see Doctor Patel when she announced she was finished with her autopsy on the two men who had been brought aboard.

"Admirals, thank you for coming so quickly", she said in a businesslike tone, taking them towards the autopsy room.

The bodies were already on ice in the freezers, but the Doctor had two bullets from one of the men's bodies. She began her brief.

"As was mentioned by our forces, these two were shot center-mass, classic military style for engaging an enemy", she said, looking up from her notes, "We didn't find any of the shell casings or rounds on the ground-whoever shot them probably confiscated them."

"Conclusion on the weapon used?", Kara was first to speak.

"The bullets are UED issue, sirs", she said with a smile coming across her face.

Kara knew it wasn't a time to celebrate, but she made a small jump and smiled despite the tenseness of the last twelve days. "Lee, he could still be alive out there", and her demeanor broke for a moment, tears in her eyes.

"That's what we're going on, Admiral", Lee smiled back and looked at Starbuck. "You go tell your family about this. I need to go to CIC and tell the Spec Ops team to double-time down that slope."

 

* * *

 

The nickname for his creation was _The Kingdom,_ as he ruled like a King of old over his followers. His name was unknown to most of them. He had grand plans for the Twelve Colonies if he could ever get to the other planets, but for the time being, he enjoyed his reign in the Caprican Mountain Range.

He went by the name The Crown.

His followers numbered approximately fifteen thousand, men, women, and children. That didn't include the "guest workers" that he had acquired through threat and occasional violence to serve his followers. Most of those he had enslaved were men, but a few women had been acquired as well. As had been the case throughout The Colonies after the Cylons came, more than a few had gone sterile. He had plenty of women who could conceive, but he, and most of his loyal subjects had gone sterile after the radiation fell.

He did have a name. He had once gone by the name of Clevin Monteith. He was in his early sixties, as people on Earth would count. He had been a nobody on the day of the attack, but circumstances that still burned within him today compelled him to be a somebody afterward.

He had been just outside Caprica City when the attack happened. A small handful of survivors from the initial attacks had made it away from the city and had fled to the countryside, hoping to escape the death was approaching.

The survivors had come over a hill and had seen a Colonial Raptor on the ground near them, and they had approached the ship, hoping to get off of the dying world. The two officers onboard the ship had recognized one of the group as a famous scientist and had taken the place of one of the officers. Clevin had tried to jump onto the Raptor as it started to take off, but the officer who stayed behind had shot him.

He had cursed the Military since that day, robbing him of the life he thought he deserved. Since there was no military around anymore, he slowly began to bring power to himself over the years. He had served others, now he wanted people to serve him.

Then the Military had shown up. Three dozen of his followers had died as a result. They had died because the Military was defending a downed pilot. His people had found the Raptor but hadn't touched it, for fear of what might happen. But they could tell someone had survived. He wanted that survivor. He wanted him or her so he could keep the Military at bay and away from his stronghold.

Clevin Monteith had never scared easy. And he was laying plans to search for that pilot again.

 

* * *

 

The prisoner that had been lifted from the surface of Caprica had sung like the proverbial canary. He went simply be the name of Enoch and refused to give his last name. He had told the interrogators all he knew. He had given him the approximate numbers of followers and "guest workers" who inhabited the hidden mountain redoubt; he didn't know the leader's name, only the name he went by. Yes, a group had found the aircraft, had seen the two dead crew members and had surmised a third was on the loose as there were bloodstains away from the ship. Yes, The Crown wanted this pilot to bargain with against the Military. No, he didn't think they'd accept the Military control of Caprica, and certainly not of the hidden stronghold.

 _Son of a bitch,_ Lee thought to himself, _fifteen thousand?_ At the very most, he could field twenty thousand ground troops if he combined The Fleet again, not counting Raptors and Falcons. Those weren't great odds against an enemy he knew little about. This group could, and already had, throwing a huge monkey wrench into his timetable for the scouting of the Twelve Worlds. But Caprica _had_ to be settled. Eventually, the other worlds would find out about what was going on here. It was inevitable. But if Caprica were to slice away on its own there would be no hope of re-establishing the Twelve Colonies.

He had told this Enoch that he was to be set free. "I'm giving you a message to send to The Clown", he mocked to get a rise out of the man.

"It's The Crown, you idiot!", the man said far too loudly. Lee simply smiled at him.

"Your to give him the message I will send with you. There will soon be a new Colonial Government and Caprica City will be the Capital. We will not allow this man or any other man, to hold slaves on this or any other of the twelve planets", he paused to add emphasis, "I will meet him at the location where our downed aircraft is. I will have sentries with me, and he may bring sentries as well.

"He won't take the bait Admiral", the man said defiantly.

"That may be, but the offer is there. How long will it take you to get back to this guy?"

"If you can drop me off at first light, I can be there by mid-day", the man said honestly, "How long does he have to meet you?"

"Two days to the minute after I drop you off", Lee confirmed, "As I said, he can bring his own guards, but I guarantee, if they start trouble, we'll end it."

Enoch believed the man in front of him.

First light would be in two hours. The man agreed to find his leader.

 

* * *

 

Ensign Natalia Schrevrenko had not yet told anyone other than Admiral Adama, Captain Wimbusi and the Bond family about her relationship with Nicholas Bond. But she found herself strengthened by the support and love shown to her by Nick's family. The first wave of grief had passed. The news that Nick had apparently shot two men dead about five days ago buoyed her hope that her guy was alive and would make it back to her.

Governor Bond was still on the ship, as was Admiral Thrace-Bond. Admiral Adama had told them that there were some sticking points on Canceron, but that Commander Carrico had the situation on that side of the Colonies under enough control for the moment. He needed Kara here for now. No one complained.

The Governor had invited Natalia to join the family for dinner when she could. Her schedule that day had her off by 1830, and she sauntered over to the Governor's VIP quarters. The Governor and Admiral were not there, but Judith Bond was.

"Natalie, it's nice to see you, my dear", Judith smiled warmly and hugged the young lady. "Is work going better?"

"Yes, ma'am", she said with confidence, "I'm still scared but I'm more myself now than I have been since this unpleasantness began."

"I'm glad to hear that, Natalie", Judy said with sincerity, "Can I get you a drink?"

"I would like that", and she tentatively smiled, "Do you have any vodka?"

Judith looked surprised, "Uh I think I do, Natalie, come to think of it."  She got up and went to the liquor cabinet, and there was a bottle of Russian Vodka in there.

"Only two fingers, young lady", Judith said with mock crossness, "I don't want the Governor to come home and see the two of us plowed from emptying the vodka." Natalie laughed.

"That would be a sight, wouldn't it?" And they both laughed.  Natalie became serious for a moment, "May I propose a toast: to the safe return of Nick to both of us." Judy smiled warmly, and they bumped their plastic cups of Vodka together.

 

* * *

 

By his reckoning, Nicholas Bond had been on the run for thirteen days now. He was losing the battle against the infection, his lack of hunger and lack of water was weakening him almost hourly. He was lucky if he could get five hundred yards before collapsing in agony. The only thing that kept him going was thinking of those he loved that was above him.

 

* * *

 

The Spec Ops team was about three miles behind him, but he had drifted a little southwest of their line of march. Captains Thomas Dalbott and Grey Solis had heard more commotion to their right, and it had slowed their progress, as they didn't want to be ambushed. Grey Solis told Dalbott that he felt something was in the air.

 

* * *

 

Enoch had arrived home and taken the message to The Crown. Clevin Monteith didn't like the idea, but he didn't see a choice that was any better. He set out for the rendezvous point early the next morning.

Before leaving, he had sent another force of his to the South. He ordered them to veer west before breaking that hotly contested tree line. He wanted that pilot.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Six

XII

 

 **Thirty-six hours after** Enoch had been turned loose, three Raptors landed about five hundred yards south of the dead Raptor. Lee and eight men emerged and headed towards the bird that had carried Nick, Rick, and Annabel.

He was surprised that near the prescribed time a group of about ten men emerged from the north, wary but calmly, to where the UED people were standing. Lee said nothing as the man approached. The other man simply looked at him, unimpressed.

"You must be this Admiral that Enoch told me about?", the man almost spat the words out.

"I'm Admiral Lee Adama, Commander of The Fleet that has entered Colonial space", the mention of that name put a flash of anger in the other man's eyes.

"Adama!", he almost choked on the name", "One of those cowards who ran away and left us here to die and to live on almost nothing!" The men backing up Lee raised their weapons slightly. That got Clevin's attention and he calmed down, "My apologies Admiral, that's old news and doesn't mean a lick here right now."

"I'll get right to it", Lee said with urgent business-like tones, "Enoch said you know about the pilot and your people have been here before, is that correct."

"That is correct", the man said evenly.

"Do you have our pilot?"

"If I had your pilot, Admiral", The Crown said with a smile, "we wouldn't be in a spot that you chose; we'd be in a spot of my choosing."

That made sense and Lee accepted it, "I'm here to give you notice about several things", he said, not dignifying the man with a title, "First, The Fleet is back. All but two Battlestars were destroyed the day of the attack. But The Fleet has been rebuilt."

"What does 'rebuilt' mean, exactly, Admiral?", the man again wasn't impressed.

"Above us here are twenty-seven ships. One Battlestar, which is twice as large as any Battlestar that has ever been built; three other main ships; as well as other ship."

The man nodded and smiled, "That's a lot of firepower, I have to give you that."

Lee let the other shoe drop, "That comprises only half The Fleet that is in this Solar System. Another Battlestar the same size is here as well. I command several thousand Vipers and about a thousand Raptors like this one. Plus I have a thousand nuclear-tipped missiles at my disposal."

That staggered the man but Lee continued.

"Plans are for an eight-hundred ship fleet, and another fleet of about fifty-six will be here a few years from now. This is the beginning of a new, permanent Fleet presence in The Twelve Colonies."

"And, ah, what is the second point, Admiral?"

"We will not tolerate anyone holding others against their will, here or on any other planet. We want to restore Caprica and make Caprica City the Capital once again; your group's presence is not welcome nor will it be accepted. I give you notice now that unless you peacefully leave your stronghold, release your prisoners, and allow the people on this planet to live in peace, we will terminate your presence here."

Lee didn't tell him that he hardly had any more people than he did, but he would put his trained soldiers and airmen up against this group, even in unknown territory, and he knew he'd win. It would cost him but he would win.

"With all respect, Admiral", the man smiled, "You can go to bloody hell", which made his minions laugh, "I like what we have yonder and I think you're bluffing."

"You'll do so probably at the forfeit of your own life", Lee looked at his new adversary with cold, unblinking eyes.

"We have nothing more to say to each other, sir", the man said, bowing his head slightly, "You try to take us out, and see what it costs you."

 

* * *

 

It was just a few hours before sunrise on the fifteenth day of his solitude. Nick Bond was staggering along, barely able to stand up. He couldn't eat; he had lost at least forty pounds; the infection was becoming so bad that he thought he would lose his leg, that is if he lived. His fever was around 105 degrees.

He dragged himself on, but after about fifteen minutes, he couldn't go any further, and fell, unconscious at that point. He wasn't under the tree line. He was in the open.

 

* * *

 

Back on board the _William Adama_ , Lee was as nervous as anyone could remember seeing him. His first priority was still Nicholas Bond's return, be he dead or alive. But now he had a possible shooting war in his near future, and he would have to start making plans for that.

He called his staff together, along with Governor Bond and Kara. The time for finding Nick Bond was running out.

"Brevin I want Raptor patrols doubled along that break in the trees that come down the slopes. We still have to believe Nick is in there, somewhere." He looked over at Kara, "Starbuck, do you want to lead the missions."

"Do you even have to ask, Lee?" There was a deadly seriousness in her voice. She was losing hope for her little brother. But she wouldn't abandon it until she knew.

"Good, you go up right at dawn. I want you further south in an oval pattern. Dalbott and Solis are beyond where the Raptor took out those idiots. If Nick is within our search area, we should find him, one way or the other."

" _The Other"_ is what frightened Kara to no end.

 

* * *

 

The hint of dawn had started on the Horizon Northeast of where Talbot and Solis were. That sneaking suspicion Grey had felt increased as they continued westward.

"Thomas, I'm not superstitious, nor do I get premonitions, but something's about to happen. I can't shake this feeling."

"I hope you're right because if Nick isn't dead by now, he's got to be damned close."

 

* * *

 

The forty men who had left on Clevin Monteith's orders the afternoon before were about two thousand yards from the tree line to the north as the first streak of dawn began to appear. Unlike the other undisciplined groups before them, they had kept deathly quiet the whole march. The didn't want anyone to know they were there until they were "there".

Nick Bond came out of his unplanned sleep at about the same time. His vision was blurry. His leg was almost numb; the infection was sapping the last bits of life out of him. But he had to try...

 

* * *

 

Captain Abdullah had put Kara in charge of the Raptors that would be out in force that morning. Her position would be over the Spec Ops teams that were coming down the western slope of the mountain.

Blondie and Sunshine boarded the Raptor without a word, looking as grim as both had ever felt.

When they were strapped in, Kara called for clearance, "Adama Actual, Starbuck, Requesting clearing for our birds."

"Starbuck, Actual, clearance granted vector 249 mark 067 to your patrol stations. Good luck. Actual out."

 

* * *

 

Dalbott and Solis were between the tree lines with their forces spread out on either side of them. They were in the open, clearly on the downslope towards friendly areas. Solis was looking down the hill when something caught his eyes to the edge of the tree line to the south...

 

* * *

 

Nicholas Bond staggered to his feet, not knowing where the strength had come to stand up and was looking west, down the hill that seemed to run for an eternity. Despite his desperate condition, he began to hear voices to his right.

 

* * *

 

"I'll be godsdamned, Bob", Solis said, raising his Big Eyes to Dalbott, "that's frackin' Nick Bond!" He depressed his mike, "Adama Actual, Captain Solis! We have our MIA in sight about seven-hundred yards to our front!" The troops began to run.

 

* * *

 

Kara and her jocks heard the call. She thumbed her own mike, "Solis, Raptor 339, Tally Ho will be there in thirty seconds!" She didn't celebrate, not yet. This could be the most dangerous moment of the entire search.

And she was right.

 

* * *

 

The group that The Crown had sent was just breaking the northern treeline, when one of their numbers shouted, "It's the fracking pilot!" He pointed directly south. Nicholas Bond was about five hundred yards directly in front of them.

 

* * *

 

Nick heard the shouts, his eyes going wide. He simply couldn't move at any great speed, but he veered towards the southwest, trying to separate from the crowd headed toward him.

 

* * *

 

Solis was back on the radio, " _Adama_ , enemies to our front four hundred yards distance, they see our pilot, we're closing to interdict!" Whether they could get there in time was another story.

 

* * *

 

Kara heard the alarm Solis had given. Her Raptor was just turning toward the opening between the trees when she saw it...

To her left was a crowd of people where were clearly not friendly. Directly in front of her, running down the hill as if their lives depended on it were the Spec Ops forces...

…...and to her right she spotted a solitary figure, desperately trying to move away from the coming collision.

_Hold on, little brother..._

 

* * *

 

Captain Bond looked in front of him and skyward-a Raptor was barreling down towards the hostile forces that were closing on him. He still had no idea UED troops were behind him.

"Come on, you Goddamned bird, fry them!"

 

* * *

 

About a thousand feet from the forces in front of them, the UED forces went to one knee and begin firing their high-powered assault weapons at the onrushing people with shotguns. Almost at once more than a few of them went down.

 

* * *

 

Kara let loose her forward guns towards the people directly in front of her, her teeth gritting in rage. Behind her, Kelsey Graham had moved behind and between the two pilot's seats, and saw the insanity unfold.

"Come on, Admiral!" she shouted, "get those motherfuckers!"

Kara didn't need the urging.

 

* * *

 

Nick now saw the UED forces closing on him as well as the posse of bad guys. A second Raptor raced overhead, firing as it went. The number of unfriendlies again dropped. The UED troops were closing fast. A third Raptor whizzed by.

He willed his beaten, exhausted body to move a little faster.

 

* * *

 

Kara swung the Raptor back in the other direction. She saw the same scene in a mirror image of what she had first seen. The bad guy's numbers had been cut by more than half; the UED troops were closing on them, and she could see Nick moving desperately away from it all.

"Support Raptors this is the Admiral", she said, taking up her rank again, "Need cover overhead while I land this thing and try to grab our soldier!"

"Be there in ten seconds Boss!" one of them barked.

Kara began to bring the Raptor down to Nick's right, hoping to shield him from the firefight that was going on.

 

* * *

 

Nick heard the Raptor approaching and turned to look up at it, seeing the most beautiful sight he had seen in his whole life: it was the face of his sister Kara.

 

* * *

 

One of the invaders had been shot nearby and was on the ground, but still alive. He looked in front of him and saw the pilot, no more than one hundred yards in front of him with a Raptor approaching from his left. It was a long shot and he knew it, but he was going to take it anyway.

 

* * *

 

Kara was about fifteen feet from touching down, and she could see her brother who was looking right back at her. She didn't dare smile yet.

Suddenly, she saw her brother's body being flung backward-a bullet had struck him. "No Goddammit!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. He couldn't die on her now...

 

* * *

 

The bullet hit Nick Bond between his thigh and his groin on the right side, and he collapsed, with blood coming out of the wound. His eyes closed...

 

* * *

 

Dalbott had seen the entire horror unfold in front of him, and raced towards the pilot as fast as he had ever moved just as the Raptor touched down. He saw the hatch open, and two jocks jump out and go around the nose of the aircraft.

 

* * *

 

Kelsey Graham and Ito Genda came around the front of the bird and saw the assailant in front of them, letting go with a burst of gunfire, lowering the man's head to the ground for eternity.

"Nicholas!" Kara sprinted for him, practically in hysterics as tears cascaded down her cheeks, "Don't die on me damn you!"

At that moment Thomas Dalbott arrived. His forces had cut down most of the rest of the bandits and he could concentrate on the wounded man in front of him.

Starbuck held Nick's head in her hands, in a state of shock, "Stay with me, little brother! Goddammit, hang on!"

Dalbott reached her side, "Admiral, I'm a trained medic, let's get him the hell in the Raptor and I'll do what first aid I can onboard." He got on his headset and told Solis he was going up with the Raptor.

Kara and Dalbott got Nick onboard. Blondie and Sunshine had been standing guard, ready to kill anyone, not in uniform. They scurried back on the Raptor.

"Blondie", Ito Genda said, "you take the right seat. Admiral, you're staying back there with your brother, and that's an order." The two junior jocks strapped in and prepped the bird for takeoff.

Kara cradled her brother's head, still crying. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, trying to keep life in him. "Oh, God Nick, I'm so sorry", she lamented, "Hang on little brother, we're going home." She laid her forehead on his.

Dalbott was working on the wound and had given the Captain some morphine near the wound in both his groin and his buttock. He glanced at his other wounds.

"Lieutenant, let's get him up there as fast as we humanly can, he's in bad shape!", Ito lifted the Raptor up and gunned it towards the _William Adama._

"Admiral, I think I have this bleeding staunched. Looking at him, he's got a gangrenous wound in his buttock that looks really bad, and he's still got a makeshift splint on her forearm here", he was sweating nervously now, "We need to get there quickly."

Kara again put her forehead on Nick's, "We're going home, little brother...we're going home."


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Seven

XIII

 

 **The CIC onboard the _Adama_** was almost silent as the bridge crew tried to follow the snippets of what was going on below them. Lee had never seen the tension so high inside the nerve center of the ship. They couldn't make out everything, as there were overlapping calls coming in, which made the situation even more unbearable.

Finally after ten minutes, although it seemed like an eternity, a voice crackled through on the speakers, "Adama Actual, Raptor 330, this is Sunshine, we have our MIA, repeat, we have our MIA, RTB."

The room exploded in a cacophony of joyous sounds as people yelled, hugged, cried and made an unseemly display-and their Admiral didn't mind one bit. Brevin Cross came up to The Boss, smile, and shook his Admiral's hand, "We got him back, Boss."

Lee was as emotional as everyone else, although he hid it as best he could. He wondered for a moment if he would have been so choked up had this been someone else they had rescued and not simply the brother of his best friend in the Universe. Brevin Cross sensed what Lee was thinking immediately.

"Don't sweat it, Boss", he said, clapping Lee on the back, "Everyone knows how close you are to the Bonds, but they also know you'd have busted your ass to get any one of them back, too."

"Thanks, XO", Lee said, and looked around at his team, then pumped his fist in the air.

 

* * *

 

Governor and Mrs. Bond had been alerted that Nick had been found and rescued, and was heading back to the _William Adama_. They were told he was in bad shape but alive. Abby Bond-Creider was hustled off of the _Carl Sagan_ and brought to the Flagship.

 

* * *

 

Natalia Schrevrenko, like everyone else in her hangar, had been following the snippets of the chaos on the surface, and like what had happened in CIC the place erupted when it was announced that Captain Bond was coming home. The Ensign fell to the floor on her knees, crying uncontrollably, part in agony and part in happiness, she couldn't tell the difference.

Captain Kamala Wimbusi saw her, and immediately ran to her, and joined her on the floor, with tears in her eyes as well, "Natalie, we got him!", she yelled as she hugged her Ensign. After a few moments, they got to their feet, "Ensign, we need to get you over to Governor and Mrs. Bond. You should be with them when Nick arrives on board."

" _Spasibo,_ Captain", she said, smiling through her tears. The two them left and with an MP escort directly to the Governor's quarters.

 

* * *

 

When she arrived at the Governor's living arrangements, the MP's opened the doors for them, and in came Wimbusi and Natalie. Judith Bond saw her, and with a tearful smile walked over to the young lady, they both hugged and cried, one getting her son back, and the other getting the love of her life back. Judith held her for several minutes until Natalia was calmed.

'Our boy's back, Natalia", Judith Bond exclaimed, kissing her on the forehead, and wiping at her tears.

"When will he arrive?", which was all Natalia was thinking about.

The Governor answered that "The MP just told me he'll be aboard in approximately seven minutes. They want to take us back to the Hangar when he arrives. I will warn both of you, Admiral Adama says that he's in bad shape."

That visibly deflated the women, but they had him back, and whatever happened now, they thought they could deal with it.

Abby joined them a few moments later, and under heavy guard, they were escorted to the hangar.

 

* * *

 

Starbuck was still cradling Nick in her lap as Ito Genda smoothly landed the Raptor in the Port Hangar bay of the _Adama._ Captain Dalbott had been doing what he could to for the unconscious pilot. His main concern had been to stop the bleeding between his groin and his thigh, and he had pretty much done that. Fortunately, the bullet that had hit him was a small caliber, and had been fired from a distance, or else it would have done more damage.

Medics were waiting and brought a gurney up to the side of the Raptor. Kara and Dalbott, with the help of Kelsey Graham, lifted Nicholas towards the gurney, where the medics began to wheel him towards Sick Bay. Doctor Patel and her team were there waiting to examine him.

As he was wheeled by, Abby, Judith, and Natalie were sobbing, stunned by Nick's appearance. The Governor was clearly shaken at the condition of his son even though the MP's had told them he was in bad shape. _But he's alive, and he has a chance_ , the Governor comforted himself.

After Nick was wheeled away, the family turned back towards the Raptor. Admiral Kara Thrace-Bond was still standing on the wing and met her family's eyes. The look on her face was as grim and as ashen-faced as they could ever remember. She jumped off the wing, and slowly made her way towards them.

There was no rushing to each other, but Kara and her Mom met halfway. Judith Bond looked at her adopted daughter, and put both her hands on her cheeks, "Thank you for bringing Nick home to us, Starbuck." Her mom said, controlling her emotions this time. Kara couldn't remember her mom ever using her Call Sign, and that broke the demeanor on her face. She didn't fall apart, but the tears came back, as she hugged her mother.

"Mom...it was horrible down there", she said, still embracing her mother, "I was almost on the ground when he was shot", she said, punishing herself for not being ten seconds quicker.

"I know it was, babe, but you and your crew got him, that's all that matters.", she smiled proudly at her daughter.

She then hugged Abby for what seemed like an eternity. Abby then excused herself to head to Sick Bay to get an update on her brother's prognosis.

She went to Natalia next, "He's home, Natalie", she said, hugging the newest member of the Bond Clan, whether official or not, "And he has a chance."

"Thank you Admiral", then she paused, "Thank you...Kara". The two warmly embraced with small smiles on both their faces.

The Governor came to her next, "Rough day, honey?". Kara actually laughed, remembering how she had said that to him after he was shot during the terrorist attack.

"Roughest one of my life, dad", she said, taking a big breath, and holding his hand, "but we brought him home, dad. We brought him home." She put her head against his chest, soaking in the love and support that she desperately needed at that moment.

 

* * *

 

Later That Evening

Clevin Monteith looked at the carnage in front of him. Thirty-six of his men and women lay dead, after the sharp, short battle that had taken place here. The survivors had filled him in: they almost had the pilot, but then the aircraft and the Special Op forces had all converged at the same time and had taken the pilot first. His bargaining chip vanished with the Raptors.

He was damned if he would give up what he had built for himself-what his slaves had built for him. He wanted revenge; he vowed revenge; he wanted that Admiral's head on a platter.

 

* * *

 

Admiral Adama was meeting with Governor Bond, Admiral Thrace-Bond, his XO, General Grayson, and Colonel Otter, in a debrief of the events that had culminated with the successful rescue of Captain Nicholas Bond.

"Admiral, I have to tell you", Kendrick Grayson started, "If those yahoos had been packing real weapons, this would have turned out different", he said in a stark moment of honesty, "If that guy who shot Nick had had a weapon like ours, the Captain wouldn't have survived, sir."

Kara and the Governor were calm on hearing that, but they knew Nick wasn't out of the woods yet. He was still unconscious. The Doctors were still evaluating his prognosis. The groin wound wasn't as serious as it could have been, and they could reset his broken forearm. Their concern had been the festering wound in his buttock. They had found a half-inch piece of metal still lodged inside him. They had removed it, thoroughly cleaned the wound and had him on several antibiotics. The medication had already brought his fever down, which was a good sign, but they couldn't tell yet how much damage the lodged metal had done. They would keep him sedated for at least another thirty-six hours.

The Admiral had called them together for a very specific decision. He knew now this lunatic in the mountains and his followers could put a huge dent in the long-term plans to restore the Colonies. If UED couldn't secure what had been the Capital of The Twelve Colonies, it could lead to the disintegration of all their efforts up to this point and for future missions. 

"I agree with you, Kendrick", the Admiral answered sullenly. He also knew if those people had weapons like theirs, they would have lost more than Nicholas Bond. "We got off lucky this time-no offense Governor, Admiral", he said glancing at the Bond's." They didn't take any umbrage and understood perfectly well that Lee was right.

The Governor was as shrewd a politician as Earth had seen in many years, and he had an idea of where Lee was going with this brief. "The question is, Lee, what do we exactly do about it?" He wasn't just asking Lee, but everyone, because what they decided here would affect future missions to The Colonies.

Lee took a breath and went right to the heart of it. "I'm proposing that we leave a division's strength of ground forces here, to counter these nuts in the hills", no one looked shocked, but none of them liked the idea. "We would also leave a force of Raptors and Falcons here as well. The plan is for the _Caprica_ and the _Libran_ to be here a few months before we depart. I'm going to make a further request to UED in my next report to them."

Kara got it before even her father. "You're going to request more Battlestars to join them, aren't you?", her eyes went wider with that thought.

Justin Bond listened to his subordinates for the moment, and Lee continued. "That's Correct, Admiral", he confirmed. "I'm going to request two additional Battlestars and about thirty additional support ships to accompany The Fleet here."

General Grayson was getting the idea. "We bring in the extra Battlestars, so we can do what we need to do here on Caprica and still do the work we came here to do, right?"

"You've got it, Ken", Lee nodded again. "I understand this is a long-term commitment and investment in The Colonies, and none of us will live to see the true fruition of those plans, but if we fall behind now, we lose positive momentum moving forward."

"We've only been here, and on Aerilon and Canceron", Kara added, "and from the reports I've read from Rabbit, the latter could cause some problems in Hades. Nothing has happened, and the people there are playing it cool, but General Trevor reports unrest there."

"I'm aware of that", Lee said without rancor. "We don't expect many problems on Sagitteron, Aquaria, Scorpia, and Libran on the Far Side, and over hear, the only place we could see trouble from beside here is Tauron."

Lee's logic was sound. They had known that the unknown would raise its head here. Caprica had thrown a wrench into their plans, and it would have to be dealt with if the long-term plans of UED would be successful.

The discussion went on for some time while the Governor remained silent, taking a few notes as things progressed. He had his own ideas but felt it was healthy to let those below him use their minds to help shape a policy that he would ultimately have to approve.

The discussion drew down and finally, the Governor spoke. "As always, everyone has valid ideas and opinions on what's to come. And we all know it won't be easy", he was looking down, the stress of his son's condition still front-and-center on his mind, but he also had a Fleet to govern. "One thing I believe needs to be brought to everyone's attention is the fact that when _Caprica_ and _Libran_ sail here with their fleet, the next two  _Colonial Class_ ships won't be ready to sail for two years after that."

Everyone stopped cold for a moment. Lee was embarrassed to admit he hadn't thought of that, and he reprimanded himself internally for the omission. The Governor continued.

"We could appropriate two _Terran Class_ ships, but do you think that would be enough, Lee?"

Lee paused for a moment, doing some mental math on the fly, before answering The Boss. "For what I'm thinking, Governor, it would be thin, I have to admit."

Justin Bond went silent for a few moments, still looking at his notepad, pen sitting on top of it. He was chewing on some ideas and needed a few moments before going on.

"Lee, I want to see your force projections before making a final decision, but at this time, I'm leaning towards requesting four _Terran Class_ Battlestars to accompany the _Caprica_ and _Libran_ on the voyage, as well as up to eight more DSE's." Then he made another mental note, "That fleet sails in just over a year, so we have to make our recommendations quickly. You all know putting together a fleet is a Herculean task, and the more time we give them, the better."

"Yes, sir". Lee replied like the pro he was.

"Thank you, Admiral", he nodded his head. "If you can get those projections to me within a few hours, I'll go over them tonight, and have my decision in the morning."

Kara objected. "Dad", she said reverting to just Kara again, "do you really want to be studying that while Nick is in such serious condition?"

For once he rebuked his daughter. "Admiral Thrace-Bond, as Governor of this fleet I have a responsibility to _everyone_ here, not just our family." He didn't raise his voice, but he had to compartmentalize even during such a personal crisis. "As the Commander-In-Chief our Military here, I need to study Lee's plans and get back to him ASAP. We don't have the luxury to sit on this for a few days or weeks. Out message won't get back to Earth for forty days, and that's forty less they'll have to put this together."

Kara slightly blushed, as her father had rarely scolded her publicly like that. But on reflection, she knew he was right. He then sought to soften the blow he had administered to his daughter.

"Besides, honey", he wanly smiled, "I don't think I'm going to get much sleep over the next few days." She nodded at him, accepting the point.

 

* * *

 

IVX

 

 **The Doctor's were cautiously** optimistic that Captain Nicholas Bond would recover, but it would be a long, arduous process for the Captain. His arm was set and would heal properly, they believed. The gunshot wound had done some damage, but the damage wouldn't be long-term.

The infection in his butt still lingered. His buttock was slow in starting to heal, no doubt because that piece of metal had sat in there for two weeks and hadn't been cleaned. The fever had come down, but was still at 101 Fahrenheit, but wasn't budging from there. Doctor Patel had told the family that until it broke below 100, she would keep him sedated. Once the fever broke, she thought the healing would speed up.

The other concern was how long he had had the fever, and would the infection cause any lingering neurological problems. Patel didn't think so, but she had no way to know how long his fever had been up around 105. That could do some damage to his brain. It was just too early to tell.

The evening after his Meeting with his Commanders, Justin Bond sat near his son, with the projections Lee had given him. Lee was correct: using two _Terran Class_ Battlestars would give them a smaller margin for error if more problems arose. He studied the brief through the night, only pausing to get a drink or a bite to eat or go to the bathroom. He also checked on Nick every now and then-and also on Natalia. She had not left, save for short breaks, since Nick had arrived back.

He was still pouring through the report, sitting on the couch near his son's bed, when Natalia come over and sat next to him.

"Anything wrong, honey?", Justin Bond looked at her. "Do you need anything?"

"Governor, I haven't slept in at least thirty hours. I'm just emotionally and physically exhausted. I don't want to leave, but I need some sleep."

Justin Bond got up and went to a closet in the room. He pulled out a pillow and a blanket being stored there. He brought them back to the couch. He sat down, and put the pillow next to his thigh, and handing the blanket to Natalia. "OK, kiddo, nap time. You put that blanket on and lay down here for a while and get some sleep. I have some studying to do still", he gave her a warm, loving smile to ease her mind somewhat.

"Spasibo, Governor", then she paused, and moved next to him, kissing him on his cheek, "I mean, Spasibo _Papa."_ She lay down and was asleep in five minutes, Justin Bond's arm on her shoulder.

He smiled down at the young woman, happy that the love of her life had been returned to her. As she was sleeping peacefully he gave her a kiss on her forehead.

Justin Bond studied Lee's work most of the night. At 0900 the next morning, he advised Lee he would ask for four _Terran Class_ Battlestars to join the next fleet. 

 

* * *

 

Admiral Caprica Baltar was on the _Laura Roslin_ holding a meeting with Commander Chase Carrico, General Trevor, and Captain Mathers. While the situation on Canceron had not resulted in bloodshed, as it had on Caprica, there were tensions in and around Hades. Blade Scroggins had informed the other factions about the intentions of The Fleet for the long-term, and it had received a cool reception. No overt hostility had been shown, but people there were thinking seriously about the future.

"From what Lee told me, Governor Bond is recommending that we leave a permanent garrison on Caprica of ten thousand", the Admiral stated at the beginning, "The fighting was short, ugly and successful from our end, but the Governor is convinced we have made an enemy of those people."

"Admiral, if I may", General Trevor thought aloud. "I don't think we're to that point here. We've had no problem in The Souther. They like the idea of trying to turn some of the desert into a land that can be cultivated and used for other purposes. They weren't happy with the news that Tylium is now useless for a fleet, but they're quite open about the future."

Cory Mathers spoke next. "From what I can see in Hades, they aren't too happy about the Tylium news. They feel that nixes any leverage they have over The Souther Continent", she was glancing at her computer screen while talking. "I agree with the General. There was no open hostility to what they told us, at least not on the surface, but I can't say they're jumping with joy."

"Kara sent me a Copy of the Governor's recommendations for the next fleet to come here, and he's practically doubling the number of forces that will be at their disposal: Two _Colonials,_ four _Terran's_ and fourteen DSE's", everyone had seen the proposal that the Governor had transmitted back to UED, and it was an eye-opener.

"The only conclusion I can come to is that they expect to have to fight for the area of Caprica City", Chase Carrico had sensed that from the moment he read the document, "If there's fifteen thousand up there who are loyal to this jerk, a force of ten thousand, even with our technological superiority, would mean a lot of casualties for us."

'That's how I read it too, Chase", Caprica said uncomfortably. UED knew there were a lot of unknowns for the first mission, but while they had made educated guesses on where trouble could brew, Caprica City hadn't been on the list. The quest to re-establish The Colonies, at least in the short run, would have to be altered.

"Any news on Captain Bond?", his fellow CAG inquired to the Admiral.

"He was in really bad shape guys", Admiral Baltar said quietly. "His main wound is being stubborn in healing. Kara told me they thought they would only have to sedate him for thirty-six hours, but his fever is still above one-hundred, and they want him sedated until it breaks below that mark. It's going to take him a long time to get over this."

The room went quiet for a moment. Caprica had been heartsick-as had everyone, quite frankly-when the Captain's Raptor had been shot down. His rescue buoyed the entire fleet, but his slow recovery was fraying nerves, especially with those who were in the family, or close to the family.

"So, Admiral", the _Roslin_ XO summed everything up, "at least for now, I gather we won't be leaving a garrison behind here?"

Admiral Baltar nodded, "That's correct, Commander. I can't see how we could if we're going to commit an entire ground Division to the Caprica City area. I might recommend small scout teams to keep an eye on developments, but nothing more than that.", she paused and looked around at the assembled. "And we have to prepare for our movement to Aquaria. That won't take long, we know that, but we still have a mission to fulfill."

 

* * *

 

Finally, on day six, Nick's fever broke below one-hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and the Doctors felt comfortable in allowing him to start waking fully. He still was a long way from full recovery, but they felt with the fever down, he was out of danger for the moment. Doctor Patel concluded that the antibiotics were beginning to work on his wounds.

Two days later, he woke up of his own volition, feeling he had been in a long, confused dream. He began to move around, and his eyes started to focus for the first time in over a week.

The first sight he saw was his mother.

He groggily smiled up at her. "Hi mom", he said with a sleepy smile on his face, "I'm home."

Judith Bond laughed through the tears, leaned over and gently embraced her son. "Welcome back Nick", she kissed him on the forehead. "It's good to see you awake", she said in almost a whisper, grabbing his hand for a moment.

"It's good to be awake", the Captain responded. "I still feel like hell, though."

Abby came up next. "Well you should feel like hell, you got yourself in a mess of trouble", she kissed her big brother on the cheek, "but it looks like we're going to be stuck with you", they both quietly laughed.

Kara came up next, shaking her head, a smile on her face mixed with tears in her eyes. "What _is it_ with the men in this family?", she said, gently hugging her "little brother".  "Do I always have to come running to save your butts-in this case, literally?" The entire family laughed.

"Uh, sis, don't say anything about my butt for a while, OK?" which made Kara laugh happily, kissing him again. "But thank you for finding me, Starbuck." He had tears in his eyes now, knowing that his sister had saved his life,

"I never gave up on you, kiddo", she clasped his hand. "Welcome home, Captain."

Finally, his father appeared. Like he had done with Starbuck a few days before, he flipped the script on Nick. Nick had used his own talent of sarcasm on his father after he had been shot in New Caprica, now the favor was returned. "Thanks for scaring the hell out of us, Nick", he smiled and winked at his only son, "it's been fun." Nick gave a small, tired laugh.

"I always said I wanted to be like you, dad", he smiled up at his father, "but I think this is overdoing it, don't you?" Justin Bond nodded a laugh and then kissed his son on his forehead.

"By the way, young man", his mother reappeared in his line-of-sight, "there's more family here who wants to say hi to you." She smiled more broadly.

"Who?" Nick puzzled, "Brett and Katraine?"

"No, son, someone very special to you", and Judith Bond turned to look behind her.

Natalia Schrevrenko stepped forward and smiled at her guy. "Well Mr. Bond, it's about time you got back here", she said with mock sternness, "You broke a date with me, remember?"

Nick's face lit up, and he actually tried to rise to greet her but didn't get far. She leaned over and hugged him fiercely, tears streaming down her face. "I thought I had lost you, Nicholas..."

"Not a chance, Ensign Schrevrenko", he looked into her eyes. After a moment, the scene in front of him clicked. "Wait a second, how did you guys..." and he looked around at his smiling family.

"Natalie came to us after your Raptor went down, son", the Governor informed him. "We couldn't let her go through this alone."

Nick shook his head. "Typical", he said with a laugh. Then he looked over at his sweetheart. "Babe I thought of you every moment; it kept me going even when I could barely stand up. It's shown me how fleeting life is." She put her forehead on his and then continued. "I know this will sound out-of-the-blue, but almost having lost my life, I know we're never promised a tomorrow." He took a small breath. "Will you marry me, Natalia."

"Well, since your parents have already made me an official part of your family, I see no choice but to accept, Captain." Her eyes were beaming at him.

"They did what?", and he looked at his parents. But Kara spoke up.

"It's what we Bond's do, little brother", she said happily. "We look out for each other. We don't let any of us suffer or celebrate alone."

"I feel like I'm late to my own marriage proposal", he said sardonically. Everyone burst out laughing.

 

* * *

 

_EPILOGUE_

 

Two Months Later, UED Headquarters, San Diego

 **The UED Commander-in-Chief** , Admiral Louis Hoshi studied the information that had been transmitted to him by Governor Bond from The Colonies. He was staring out at the mighty Pacific Ocean, still digesting the news of the events on Caprica and Canceron. News of the fight on the Caprican Mountain Range after the shoot-down of Captain Nicholas Bond had hit him hard.

The recommendations the Governor had sent had everyone at Headquarters talking. Hoshi knew the Governor was no war hawk and detested having to use force. That made his recommendations even more worth taking note of.

He had hoped with all his being that The Fleet-any of the fleets that were sent-would never fire a shot in anger. To know that there had been combat on his home world saddened him to no end.

UED Brass had been sent into a conniption over the news, and they had been going back and forth on the events and the Governor's recommendations of adding four  _Terran Class_ Battlestars to the next fleet. Hoshi couldn't imagine he would over-rule the man on the scene, and still felt that way, but many at UED had been against sending part of the Earth Picket to The Colonies.

Hoshi had come to some conclusions. He would order the construction of another thirty  _Terran Class_ ships. The idea of sending only the larger _Colonials_ to The Colonies had been correct, but he could see now that the smaller Battlestars could be used much as smaller American Pocket Aircraft Carries had been used in regard to the full-sized Carriers during The Second World War-a supplemental force for the unknown.

He had also concluded he would send the ships that Governor Bond had requested. Finally, with the enhanced force that would sail in about eleven months, he had made some Command Decisions as well.

The first thing he did was to call Admiral Karl "Helo" Agathon, who was still The Boss on the _Winston Churchill._ The Churchill had been in the outer reaches of the Solar System on duty, and he recalled the Admiral to meet him in San Diego.

"Reporting as ordered, Admiral", Helo saluted The Boss. Louis had a light lunch and drinks brought in before they talked. He went over the information from The Colonies with his old friend.

"God", Helo said with amazement, "that certainly wasn't expected, Louis", he noted, still reading the report. "I'm glad that it looks like Nick is going to make it, but this spells real trouble."

"That's what the Governor thinks as well", Louis Hoshi agreed. "Caprica tells us things are quiet on Canceron, but there is unease at what Trevor told the people in Hades."

"Is Lee going to garrison Hades as well?"

Admiral Hoshi shook his head, "No. Admiral Baltar is recommending a small scouting party to monitor events there, but they're going to be spread too thin, what with ten thousand committed to Caprica."

"Caprica made the call, not Starbuck?" That confused Karl.

"That's correct, Helo", he confirmed, "When Nick was reported MIA, she and her parents went over to the _Adama._ Caprica stepped in and made the call, and Governor Bond backed her completely. In fact, Kara flew some Raptor missions for the SAR, and she was the one who actually rescued Nick during a firefight."

Helo let that thin smile cross his face and he shook his head, "I might have known", he thought of his friend. "She doesn't like anyone messing with her brother or sister."

"Kara sent me her own follow-up, and she told me she was as scared as she ever has been when she saw Nick, while shots were being fired."

The smile left Helo's face. "That had to be tough", he conceded.

"I actually called you here because I've made some Fleet decisions based on the Governor's suggestions." He told Helo about the four _Terran Class_ Battlestars that would sail with the _Caprica_ and _Libran._ He then dropped the bombshell on Admiral Agathon.

"Also, Karl, I am going to change assignments as well. I'm ordering you to take over the Battlestar _Libran_ , and prepare her for the mission to The Colonies."

Karl's jaw hit the floor, "You want _me_ to go to The Colonies?" _Athena is going to love this_ , he thought to himself.

"Yes, Karl", Louis nodded, _"_ The _Caprica_ will be the Flagship, but you've been in combat. Admiral Silva is capable, but with the news from Caprica, I want someone who knows The Colonies, and has seen combat on a fleet."

"Of course sir", Helo said, taking a breath at the news. "I'll prepare for my transfer immediately."

"Thank you, Helo. I know it's sudden but I feel this is the best move."

"Is Admiral Fletcher still going to take the _Caprica?"_

"No, I'm having Fletcher assigned to the _Kennedy,_ so he'll be going still. I've talked to him. He's disappointed but he said he'll work their tails off on the _J.F.K._ As with your new ship, I want someone who's been in combat on a Battlestar to head the Flagship.

'Who else is there, sir?" Karl couldn't think of anyone else down here who could take such a comment.

Louis looked him dead in the eyes, "There's me, Helo", he said evenly, "I've tendered my resignation as C-in-C. I've requested, and have been granted the command of the Battlestar _Caparica."_

_To be continued in the next installment of this series._


	8. Alternate Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had trouble writing this originally because it hit me hard emotionally, but I've got it finished.

XII

 

 **Precisely as planned** , about thirty-six hours after Enoch had been turned loose, three Raptors landed about five-hundred yards South of the dead Raptor. Lee and eight men emerged and headed towards the downed Raptor.

He was surprised that near the prescribed time, a group of about ten men emerged from the North, wary but calmly, to where the UED people were standing. Lee said nothing as the man approached. The other man simply looked at him, unimpressed.

"You must be this Admiral that Enoch told me about?", the man almost spat the words out.

"I'm Admiral Lee Adama, Commander of The Fleet that has entered Colonial space." The mention of that name put a flash of anger in the other man's eyes.

"Adama!", he almost choked on the name." "One of those cowards who ran away and left us here to die and to live on almost nothing!" The men backing up Lee raised their weapons slightly. That got Clevin's attention, and he calmed down. "My apologies, Admiral, that's old news and doesn't mean a lick here right now."

"I'll get right to it", Lee said with urgent business-like tones. "Enoch said you know about the pilot, and you've been here before, is that correct."

"That is correct", the man said evenly.

"Do you have our pilot?"

"If I had your pilot, Admiral", The Crown said with a smile, "we wouldn't be in a spot where you picked; we'd be in a spot of my choosing."

That made sense and Lee accepted it . "I'm here to give you notice about several things", he said, not dignifying the man with a title. "The first, The Fleet is back. All but two Battlestars were destroyed the day of the attack. But The Fleet is being rebuilt."

"What does 'rebuilt' mean, exactly, Admiral?", the man again wasn't impressed.

"Above us here are twenty-seven ships. One Battlestar, which is twice as large as any Battlestar that has ever been built; three other main ships; as well as other ship."

The man nodded and smiled. "That's a lot of firepower, I have to give you that."

Lee let the other shoe drop. "That comprises only half The Fleet that is in this Solar System. Another Battlestar the same size is here as well. I command several thousand Vipers and about a thousand Raptors like this one. Plus I have a thousand nuclear-tipped missiles at my disposal."

That staggered the man, but Lee continued.

"Plans are for an eight-hundred ship fleet, and another fleet of about fifty-six will be here a few years from now. This is the beginning of a new, permanent Fleet presence in The Twelve Colonies."

"And, ah, what is the second point, Admiral?"

"We will not tolerate someone holding others against their will, here or on any other planet. We want to restore Caprica and make Caprica City the Capital once again; your group's presence is not welcome, nor will it be accepted. I give you notice now that unless you peacefully leave your stronghold, release your prisoners, and allow the people on this planet to live I peace, we will terminate your presence here."

Lee didn't tell him that he hardly had any more people than he did, but he would put his trained soldiers and airmen up against this group, even in unknown territory, and he knew he'd win. It would cost him, but he would win.

"Well, with all respect, Admiral", the man smiled, "you can go to bloody hell", which made his minions laugh. "I like what we have yonder, and I think you're bluffing."

"You'll do so probably at the forfeit of your own life." Lee looked at his new adversary with cold, unblinking eyes.

"We have nothing more to say to each other, sir", the man said, bowing his head slightly. "You try to take us out, and see what it costs you."

 

* * *

 

It was just a few hours before sunrise on the fifteenth day of his solitude. Nick Bond was staggering along, barely able to stand up. He couldn't eat; he had lost at least forty pounds; the infection was becoming so bad that he thought he would lose his leg, that is if he lived. His fever was around 105 degrees.

He dragged himself on, but after about fifteen minutes, he couldn't go any further, and he fell, unconscious at that point. He wasn't under the tree line. He was in the open.

 

* * *

 

Back on board the the  _William Adama_ , Lee was as uptight as anyone could remember seeing him. His first priority was still Nicholas Bond's return, be he dead or alive. But now he had a possible shooting war in his near future, and he would have to start making plans for that.

He called his staff together, along with Governor Bond and Kara. The time for finding Nick Bond was running out.

"Brevin, I want Raptor patrols doubled along that break in the trees that come down the slopes. We still have to believe Nick is in there, somewhere." He looked over at Kara. "Starbuck, do you want to lead the missions."

"Do you even have to ask, Lee", she said with a deadly seriousness she hadn't felt in years. She was losing hope for her little brother. But she wouldn't abandon it until she knew.

"Good, you go up right at dawn. I want you further South in an oval pattern. Dalbott and Solis are beyond where the Raptor took out those idiots. If Nick is within our search area, we should find him, one way or the other."

The "other" is what frightened Kara to no end.

 

* * *

 

The hint of dawn had started on the Horizon Northeast of where Talbot and Solis were. That sneaking suspicion Grey had increased as they continued Westward.

"Thomas, I'm not superstitious, nor get premonitions, but something's about to happen. I can't shake this feeling."

"I hope you're right because if Nick isn't dead by now, he's got to be damned close."

 

* * *

 

The forty men who had left on Clevin Monteith's orders the afternoon before, were about a two thousand yards from the tree line to the North as the first streak of dawn began to appear. Unlike the other, undisciplined groups before them, they had kept deathly quiet the whole march. The didn't want anyone to know they were there until the were "there".

 

* * *

 

Nick Bond came out of his unplanned sleep at about the same time. His vision was blurry. His leg was almost numb; the infection was sapping the last bits of life out of him. But he had to try...

 

* * *

 

Captain Abdullah had put Kara in charge of the Raptors that would be out in force that morning. Her position would be over the Spec Ops teams that were coming down the Western slope of the mountain.

Blondie and Sunshine boarded the Raptor, without a word, looking as grim as both had ever felt.

When they were strapped in, Kara called for clearance, "Adama Actual, Starbuck, Requesting clearing for our birds."

"Starbuck, Actual, clearance granted vector 249 mark 067 to your patrol stations. Good luck. Actual out."

 

* * *

 

Dalbott and Solis were between the tree lines, with their forces spread out on either side of them. They were in the open, clearly on the downslope towards friendly areas. Solis was looking down the hill when something caught his eyes to the edge of the tree line to the South...

 

* * *

 

Nicholas Bond staggered to his feet, not knowing where the strength had come to stand up and was looking West, down the hill that seemed to run for an eternity. Despite his desperate condition, he began to hear voices to his right.

 

* * *

 

"I'll be godsdamned, Bob", Solis said, raising his binoculars to his eyes, "that's fracking Nick Bond, about seven hundred yards, straight ahead!". He handed his Big-Eyes to Dalbott, then depressed his mike. "Adama Actual, Captain Solis! We have our MIA in sight about seven-hundred yards to our front!" The troops began to run.

 

* * *

 

Kara and her jocks heard the call. She thumbed her own mike, "Solis, Raptor 339, Tally Ho, will be there in thirty seconds!" She didn't celebrate, not yet. This could be the most dangerous moment of the entire search.

And she was right.

 

* * *

 

The group The Crown sent was just breaking the Northern treeline, when one of their numbers shouted, "It's the fracking pilot!" He pointed directly South. Nicholas Bond was about five hundred yards directly in front of them.

 

* * *

 

Nick heard the shouts, and his eyes went wide. He simply couldn't move with any speed, but he veered towards the Southwest, trying to separate from the crowd headed toward him.

 

* * *

 

Solis was back on the radio, " _Adama_ , enemies to our front four hundred yards distance, they see our pilot, we're closing to interdict!" Whether they could get there in time was another story.

 

* * *

 

Kara heard the alarm Solis had given. Her Raptor was just turning toward the opening between the trees, and she saw it...

To her left was a crowd of people where were clearly not friendly. Directly in front of her, running down the hill as if their lives depended on it, were the Spec Ops forces...

…...and to her right, she spotted a solitary figure, desperately trying to move away from the coming collision.

_Hold on, little brother..._

 

* * *

 

Captain Bond looked in front of him and skyward-a Raptor was barreling down towards the hostile forces that were closing on him. He still had no idea UED troops were behind him.

"Come on, you Goddamned bird, fry them!"

 

* * *

 

About fifteen hundred feet from the forces in front of them, most of the UED forces went to one knee and begin firing their high-powered assault weapons at the onrushing people with shotguns. Almost at once, a few of them went down.

 

* * *

 

Kara let loose her forward guns towards the people directly in front of her, her teeth gritting in rage. Behind her, Kelsey Graham had moved behind and between the two pilot's seats, and saw the insanity unfold.

"Come on, Admiral!" she shouted, "get those motherfuckers!"

Kara didn't need the urging.

 

* * *

 

Nick now saw the UED forces closing on him and the posse that was closing on him. A second Raptor raced overhead, firing as it went, and the number of unfriendlies again dropped. The UED troops were closing fast. A third Raptor whizzed by.

He willed his beaten, exhausted body to move a little faster.

 

* * *

Kara swung the Raptor back in the other direction. She saw the same scene in a mirror image of what she had first seen. The bad guy's numbers had been cut by more than half; the UED troops were closing on them, and she could see Nick moving desperately away from it all.

"Support Raptors, this is the Admiral", she said, taking up her rank again, "Need cover overhead while I land this thing and try to grab our soldier!"

"Be there in ten seconds, Boss!" one of them barked.

Kara began to bring the Raptor down to Nick's right, hoping to shield him from the firefight that was going on.

 

* * *

Nick heard the Raptor approaching and turned to look up and he saw the most beautiful sight he had seen in his whole life.

It was the face of his sister.

 

* * *

 

A member of the invaders had been shot, and was on the ground, but was still alive. He looked in front of him and saw the pilot, no more than one hundred yards in front of him, with an aircraft approaching from his left. It was a long shot, and he knew it, but he was going to take it anyway.

 

* * *

 

Kara was about fifteen feet from touching down, and she could see her brother, who was looking right back at her. She didn't dare smile yet.

Suddenly, she saw her brother's body being flung backward-a bullet had struck him. "No Goddammit!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

 

* * *

 

The bullet struck Nicholas Bond in the abdomen, near his spleen, and then tore a slight hole in his Abdominal Aorta. He was knocked to the ground and began to bleed heavily.

Kara had to look away for a moment to land the bird, but her scream had alerted Blondie and Sunshine. They had the hatch up even before the bird had hit the ground, weapons drawn. When the bird found dirt, they saw Nick Bond and then rushed around the front of the Raptor. The man who had shot Nick was still aiming his weapon. The two Lieutenants got a bead on him and fired almost simultaneously. The shooter's head hit the ground, never to rise again.

Starbuck tore off her harness and raced out the hatch screaming. " _Nick_!" Desperation was etched on her face as she saw the blood coming out of his abdomen.

Captain Dalbott was only a few steps behind her by this time, and he joined her. "Admiral!" he yelled over the noise of the battle and the engine on the Raptor. "I'm a trained medic! He's been hit in a major artery, we need to get him to the  _Adama_ now, or we're gonna lose him!"

Kara was crying uncontrollably at this point. With the urging of Dalbott, they picked him up and headed towards the Raptor. Graham and Genda were coming around the front and assisted the other two in getting the Captain on board.

Genda looked at Captain Bond and the Admiral, and made an instant decision. "Blondie, you take the right seat! Admiral, you stay with your brother, and that's a direct fucking order!. I'm flying us outta here!"

Kara didn't react to that, though she had heard it. She and Dalbott laid Nick down, her brother's head on her knees.

"Lieutenant!", Thomas Dalbott screamed, "get the hell out of here now, call a Krypter! We need to get him there!" He turned to Starbuck. "Admiral, reach into that compartment behind you to the right, there's a shitload of gauze and bandages, I need them to try and staunch this wound!"

Kara froze for a half second, then came to, opening the compartment and hauling out a large stockpile of gauze and bandages. There were more behind Dalbott. He already had them out.

Dalbott had used a small knife to open the wound a little further so he could get the pieces of cloth inside of Captain Bond's body, to try and cut the flow of blood. "Admiral, I need you to hold what I have in place, while I try to get more in. I also gotta get some morphine in him as well!"

The Captain knew he was racing against time, and that Nicholas Bond was in mortal danger. But he kept working to try and save the Admiral's brother.

"OK, Admiral, I have all the gauze I can get in there", he didn't look up, so focused on his work he was at the moment, "I'm gonna put pressure on his abdomen, to try and cut off the bleeding".

She leaned over her brother and kissed him on the forehead, "We're going home, Nick, we're going home."

 

* * *

 

On the  _Adama,_ the CIC could only catch snippets of what was happening, as voices were overlapping in a jumble of confusion from the surface. In a break in the tumult, the voice of Lieutenant Ito Genda boomed through the bridge.

"Krypter! Krypter! Krypter! Raptor 349, Adama Actual, we have the MIA, but he was shot just before we landed, and he is critical, request emergency landing."

Lee looked at his board. "349, cleared emergency landing Port Hangar!", he turned to Commander Cross, "Brevin, inform the doctor's Code Blue emergency Port side, have them ready." He had nearly screamed the command. The CIC had momentarily started to celebrate when they heard that Nick Bond was onboard. But when Sunshine had reported his condition, almost to a person, they closed their eyes.

 

* * *

 

Kara was looking down at her brother, rocking him on her knees. She was inconsolable. There was still some blood leaking out, but it was only a trickle now.

"Nick, Nick, Nick", she sobbed over and over, "Stay with me little brother, we'll be home in a few minutes." She put her forehead down on his.

 

* * *

 

Lee raced from the CIC to the hangar. They hadn't had time to even inform the Bond family and Natalia Schrevrenko. Abby was back on the  _Sagan._ His XO was getting Abby over here as quick as they could, and Cross was notifying the Bonds even as Lee ran to the hangar.

Minutes later, the Raptor skidded to a stop and was brought into the bay. Nurses and doctors were standing by to start aiding the stricken Captain. As the Raptor stopped in the bay, Justin Bond, Judith Bond, and Natalia Schrevrenko were arriving, apparently at a run. Abby was to land momentarily in the same Hangar.

Thomas Dalbott screamed from the Raptor as the hatch begin to open. "We need help up here, right the fuck now!" MP's came up to help move the Captain. A gurney was at the back of the wing, The MP's carried him out, with the medical personnel waiting at the gurney.

Judith Bond brought both her hands the front of her face when she saw blood dripping down between the MP's as he was put on the Gurney. Natalia screamed. "Nicholas, No!", and she ran forward. Justin Bond grabbed her from behind, and she struggled to get away, "Papa, I have to get to Nick!" The Governor held on to her for dear life, as he himself struggled to keep from collapsing from the shock of the moment.

"Natalie! No, let the medics do their work, honey!" She turned and buried her face in his chest, as he himself trembled with grief. The medics wheeled Nick towards a surgery room.

After the tumult began to die down, Thomas Dalbott first emerged from the Raptor. Horror spread across Judy Bond's face, as the Captain was covered with her son's blood. She fell to her knees, Natalia coming in beside her. The Captain looked positively grim as he stepped off the Raptor.

Despite his appearance, and shaking almost uncontrollably from the stress and panic he had felt, he moved toward the Governor, pulled himself up to full attention, and saluted. "Governor Bond, sir", the man said as tears streamed down his own face, "I'm a trained medic, and I did everything I could sir."

Justin Bond righted himself, and saluted in return. "You're a courageous man, Captain. I thank you for helping Nicholas get home." The Captain nodded and stumbled away.

Kara had been sitting in the Raptor, almost in a trance. She finally came to, and emerged, seeing her parents and Natalia there at that moment. A commotion began to her right, and MP's were hustling Abby Bond-Crieder to the area. The Governor looked at his adopted daughter. He had never seen her looked more frightened and disheveled. She looked grimly at her father and came off the Raptor.

Abby had been with Judy and Natalia, and when they informed her of Nick's condition, she began to scream and cry uncontrollably, the other two women trying to comfort her.

"Dad", Kara said, as her face began to crumble again, as the trauma of the mission came cascading down on her, "I was fifteen feet from landing when he was shot", she moved towards him, "Fifteen goddamned feet!", her father engulfed her in his arms as she beat her fists against his chest in anger and grief. "Goddammit to hell, just fifteen fucking feet!"

"Kara, sweetheart", the Governor said, barely holding himself together, "you did everything you could, honey."

Kara almost screamed, not at her father, or anyone, but out of sheer desperation. "Nicholas!", and she collapsed to the floor, her father going down behind her, hugging her with all his might, as they both were almost inconsolable.

 

* * *

 

Lee stood off the side. The sheer terror that had overcome the Bond family had shaken him like nothing he could ever remember. He didn't know if the Bond's had even seen him there. He was in his own state of shock.

He looked at the hangar bay: there was blood on the wing of the Raptor, and on the floor. There were a dozen MP's in the bay and the near-hysterics of the family had so emotionally overwhelmed the soldiers that they looked like they would kill anyone not in the Bond family that might move. Lee was almost frightened by the MP's demeanor.

He had gone there to see what he could do, but had not been prepared for the scene. But, slowly, the Bond family were rallying to each other, and were consoling one another. Lee thought to himself, again, just what an incredible family Kara had been adopted into.

He turned and quietly slipped away.

 

* * *

 

Captain Bond had gone through four hours of surgery. Not only had the Doctor's worked on the wound to his abdomen, but they had needed to clean out the infected wound in his buttock, and begin to administer treatment. Doctor Patel had ordered massive amounts of antibiotics to be put in his system, and he was fully sedated and would be for hours if he made it through the hours.

 

* * *

 

Three Days Later

Nicholas Bond had teetered on the brink since he had been taken from the Raptor. The Doctor's had been monitoring him nonstop since he arrived. He was waking up a little, despite all the medication. Doctor Patel called the Bond Family and Natalia together.

They were in the waiting room, as she was finishing up reports from the latest observations before seeing the family. Then she entered the room.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming", she said with a neutral face. Everyone sat down, and she pulled a chair from the other side of the room and sat down as well. This was the hardest part of being a doctor.

"Governor Bond, Mrs. Bond", she began. "Nick is conscious now. He wants to see all of you, but I want to talk to you first."

And she told them: they had slowed the internal bleeding, but hadn't stopped it, despite their best efforts; he had gone through twenty pints of blood since being wheeled in. The infection and high fever had weakened his ability to fight off the further damage from the bullet.

The Doctor paused, for a moment. "The conclusion I've reached is, that despite our efforts, it's doubtful he'll survive." The Governor bore it stoically for the moment. Admiral Thrace-Bond stared straight ahead. Judith Bond was holding hands with both Abby and Natalia. Natalia looked as if her world had just ended.

"Doctor", Justin Bond spoke for the family, "I appreciate your efforts. I know you can reach the point in such instances when you stop treatment. I need to know if you're at that point?"

She nodded sadly. "Yes, Governor, we are", she was unable to meet his eyes at that moment. "We will continue making him comfortable, but between the wound from the shrapnel, the infection and the bullet wound, the damage is just too great."

"Doctor Patel", Judith Bond looked up. Her eyes had been cast down the entire time. "May we see him?"

"Of course, Mrs. Bond", she said sadly. "As I said he's awake, and wants to see you. We haven't told him the prognosis, but I think he knows."

 

* * *

 

The door to Nick Bond's ICU room opened, and his family walked in. His mother was first to reach his bed.

"Hello son", she said, failing to keep her voice from cracking, and the tears out of her eyes. "We're glad you're home." She leaned over to kiss him and put her cheek on his forehead, not able to keep from crying.

"It's good to be home, mom", he said with a small smile. "And, I know what's going on, mom. I know I'm not going to make it, but it's good to be home." He put his good arm around his mother's shoulder and squeezed her.

"Nick, I'd give everything in my life to change places with you!", she looked at his face.

"Mom, it's OK. I've learned we all have our time." Judith Bond got up and moved away. Abby came next.

"Goddammit, Nick, I can't go through life without you!", she was as inconsolable as her mother. "I know we sometimes fought like cats and dogs, but I love your more than my very life."

"Abby", he touched her on the cheek, "no one ever had a better little sister. I'm so proud of you, and the woman you are. Please give Katraine and Brett hugs for me?" She laid her head on his chest, then kissed him on his forehead.

Kara had been emotionless since she had left the hangar after they had off-loaded him days before. Now, her face came to life. But she was heartbroken.

She smiled at him, and sat down next to him. "My dear, sweet little brother", flashing her incredible smile through her grief, running her fingers through his hair and down his cheek. Nick had known Kara had rescued him. He remembered seeing her face in the Raptor before being shot. He could also see the guilt and anger on her face.

"Starbuck", he said, grabbing her hand, "don't beat yourself up like this. I know what you're thinking." She smiled some more at that remark. "I've never known a braver, more courageous soul in all my life."

"If I had only been ten seconds..." Nick raised his hand to cut her off.

"You got me home, Kara", he smiled, his eyes lighting up. "You made it so I could die surrounded by my family, and not on some open mountainside on Caprica. Thank you, Starbuck", and he slowly began to cry as well. "I love you. You'll always be my hero."

Kara buried her face in his chest, and her grief spilled over again. She was devastated, but felt immense pride for her brother. "You're my hero, Nicholas Bond. I'll carry you in my heart, every day of my life. I love you so much." They embraced for a few more moments.

Governor Bond approached next. "Son", he said, finally beginning to become undone from the twenty or so days of tension since he had been shot down, "I'd gladly give my life up right now to save yours." Nick had seen his father with tears in his eyes before, but never openly sobbing, as he was now. "I don't want to lose you, son", hugging Nicholas through the pain.

"Dad", Nick was in the same shape, "the greatest honor of my life as been to be your son. You molded me into the man I became, and I love you forever for that." His father's shoulders were racked with sobs. He finally looked up and kissed his son for the last time.

"I love you, son", the Governor said, "I always will."

Kara spoke up as her father stepped back, "Nick. there's someone else here who wants to see you", she said with a sad smile on her face.

"Who? Katraine and Brett?"

The Bond's looked behind them, with still-stricken faces. Natalia stepped forward.

Nick's eyes lit up. "Ensign Schrevrenko", he said, his eyes alight. "I might have known you were around here." He winked at her.

Usually, Natalia loved to match sarcasm for sarcasm, but not this time, "Nicholas", she sobbed quietly, "I don't want to lose you."

"I don't want it either, babe, but my number has come up." He held her gently in her arms. Then a thought occurred to him, and even with his own death not far away, he let that famous Bond humor come forward. "Now, wait a sec, what are you doing here with my family?"

Kara answered. "She told us you two were dating, Nick", she said quietly, "and, naturally, the Bond family took her in as one of our own."

Nick actually let out a small laugh. "Why am I not surprised?", he looked first at Natalie and then her family. They smiled in spite of their grief.

"Nicholas", Natalia continued, "what will I do without you?", she couldn't see life with him not in it.

"You're young, babe", he smiled again, "you'll fall in love again; you'll get married someday."

Natalia sat up, a sudden thought crossing her mind. "No, I'm going to get married, right now", she looked at Nick, and then the family. "Nicholas, will you marry me?"

He broke out in tears once again. "Yes, I wall, Natalie."

Natalie looked around with some desperation. "We need to get a priest...a rabbi..."

Kara again stepped forward and put her hand on the shoulder of her new sister. "Natalie, as an Admiral Of The Fleet, I can perform weddings for military personnel. I would be honored to marry the two of you."

Natalia sat down next to Nick, holding his hand.

She looked at the Ensign. "Natalia, do you take Nicholas as your husband, will you love him and cherish him all the days of your life?"

"I will", she looked down at the dying Captain.

Judith Bond looked at her husband. She didn't say a word, but he knew instantly what she was thinking. She stepped forward, pulled off the wedding band that had been on her finger for more than forty years, and handed it to Nick.

"Mama Bond", Natalie looked up in wonder, "I cannot..."

"It's my wedding gift to both of your, Natalie." The tears, for a moment, replaced with a maternal pride emanating from her face. Nick smiled and put the ring on her finger, which fit the new Mrs. Bond almost perfectly.

Justin Bond stepped forward, and did the same thing, taking his wedding band off, and handing it now to Natalia.

Kara continued.

"Nicholas", her demeanor broke once more, her mouth quivering with heartbreak, "do you take Natalie as your wife, will you love her and cherish her, all the days of your life?"

He nodded peacefully. "I will." All the weight he had lost meant the ring was too large, but he held it tight.

"By the power invested in me by United Earth Defense, I pronounce you man and wife."

Natalie smiled proudly, leaned forward and kissed her husband.

Seventeen hours later, Nicholas Bond succumbed from his injuries.

 

* * *

 

XIII

 **Gaius and Caprica Baltar** were in their quarters. Neither had said a word for the fifteen minutes that they had been in their suite. Neither wanted to. Gaius was sullen and introspective at that moment. Caprica had been weeping since she arrived. The news that Nicholas Bond had died had hit her hard.

She and Gaius had known the young man since he was around nineteen. He was so much like his father; they both felt he would achieve great things, even if he didn't follow Justin Bond into politics. Now, that promising future was no more.

Gaius got up and walked to the window, as he looked out into the darkness of space. He hadn't known Nick Bond as well as Caprica, but like his wife, he knew he had been a special man. He pondered the bills that had been paid by Humanity since The Fleet had arrived at Earth. It's almost as if Caprica had read his mind.

"Is all this worth it?", she looked up forlornly at her husband. "The costs we've paid; the costs we continue to pay, Gaius?" She stared straight ahead. "How many people like The Old Man, or Hotdog, or Nicholas Bond do we have to lose?"

"Caprica, that's a question that I am in no way qualified to answer", he said his eyes downcast. "There has always been great loss when one is trying to achieve great gain.", he sighed. "I know those are just empty words, but sadly that's all I have right now."

Caprica smiled at him. "But good words, Gaius", she said finally calming down. "If humanity is going to survive, we will lose more fine people, but it has to be worth the cost we pay."

"Is losing Nick Bond worth the cost?", he said, still looking out the window.

"Personally?", his wife answered. "No. The Bond family has been so good to me. Judith is probably my best friend in the Universe. I just ache for her and Justin right now, what they must be going through", then she got up and went to the window as well. "But for us to win the fight?", she sighed. "I can't answer that one. But we can't give up. We have to make this work for humanity's sake."

Gaius grabbed his wife's hand. "Then we have no choice to move forward, watch more of our finest become casualties, and to make it worth such a terrible price."

The both looked out the window together and fell silent.

 

* * *

 

Lee had just gone off-duty for a few hours. He was making the rounds to check up on the families of the three fallen pilots to make sure they had whatever they needed. It was his responsibility to take care of them, and he was personally going to make damn sure it happened. Not that he didn't think his crew would shirk the responsibility, but simply to follow through on his commitment to all his people.

He visited everyone in the last two-plus hours, except for Admiral Thrace-Bond. She had spent a lot of time with her parents and her sisters, but she wasn't at the Bond quarters when he had paid his respects to the Governor and the rest of his family. She was currently in her private quarters.

Lee arrived at her door and knocked on it twice. There was no response. He was sure she was in there. So he knocked again. Still nothing.

He took a breath, and gently turned the handle, and the door began to swing open. The light was on but was dimmed to the point where it almost didn't matter. He entered the "living room", as it were...and in a corner, he saw Starbuck's silhouette in the dim light. Lee could tell she had seen him, but she didn't move and didn't utter a word.

Lee could feel the grief and anger literally radiating off of his long-time friend. He'd seen her like this before-but not for years. He knew she was going through an emotional tsunami at that moment, so he just sat there.

Finally, after at least five minutes, Kara spoke. "You remember when I joined The Circle after we left New Caprica?", she said in a flat monotone.

"Gods, how could I forget that Kara", he said, remembering that tumultuous time aboard  _Galactica._ Right after The Circle had disbanded, Tigh and Kara had been dressed down by his father over the two of them poisoning morale on the ship.

"Sam came by to see me when we were deliberating about Felix. He was upset that I had joined after he had quit. And I told him that I was in a different place at that time". She had her eyes closed, thinking of that terrible time in her life, "and I told him then that I just wanted to hurt someone-anyone-at that moment."

Lee hadn't ever heard that part, but he wasn't surprised. That was the time that he most feared for where Kara was headed in her life. "Are you telling me that's where you're at right now, Kara?"

Kara looked at him in the near-darkness. "I don't know, Lee", she said in the same emotionless monotone, "but right now, I do wanna hurt someone. I just have this rage inside me, that I haven't felt since leaving New Caprica. Part of me wants to get a weapon and shoot someone in the face, but another part wants to just curl up in a ball and give up."

That made him sigh quietly with some relief. He knew the Kara of thirty years ago would not have cared and would have tried to tear someone's eyes out.

Kara got up for a moment, walked over to the knob for the light, and turned up the brightness a little bit, then she sat back down again, looking at the floor, and again not speaking. After another five minutes, she continued.

"You know, Lee", she began again in the same voice, "I made a promise when I was adopted to look out for my family. I swore I wouldn't let anything happen to Abby, Nick, mom or dad if it was in my power", she looked up, but away from Lee, "and when the moment came, I failed my brother." Tears were in her eyes, but she didn't cry, so numb with grief she was. She continued to look away. "I could have saved him, Lee. And I failed."

Lee didn't respond right away. Not that he agreed with her, but because he was trying to find the right words to counter her confession. It took him a few minutes.

"When dad died in the War, I felt the same way. I felt that I hadn't done enough with  _Pegasus_ to shield  _Galactica_ from those Baseships", he sighed, "and  _Victory_ jumped in just a little too late to save The Old Girl and The Old Man."

He again paused, as Kara tried to soak in the words.

"But in a war, or in a firefight, or in a battle, very little goes the way we want. We plan; we analyze; we move forces around to counter the enemy, but sometimes, for all that we do, we simply can't control moments that are unexpected."

Kara again contemplated. "I understand that, but I go over and over and over the battle every minute in my mind, and I'm looking for things I could have done differently." She had finally looked at her longtime friend, "but...", her voice trailed off.

"But when you come right down to it, you can't find anything, can you?" He answered. "When your father talks about Fate and how it lead you to each other, you have to know Fate isn't a one-way street, Starbuck. It giveth and it taketh away. Your father has always told me it's a balancing act, and it can cut both ways."

Kara nodded slightly, reluctantly agreeing with The Boss, "But God, Lee, why did it take something so precious to me?", and the sobs finally came. She was past the hysterics of her brother's death, but the wound was still fresh and so raw that it wasn't the time to close it yet.

Lee went to the couch Kara was on, and silently sat next to her, slipping his arm over her shoulder. "It sucks, Kara", he sad bluntly. "War sucks; combat sucks; it isn't fair, but it isn't mean to be fair." Starbuck was again staring straight ahead, as if she hadn't heard his words. He knew she had heard them, and plunged on.

"I know that if you could-that if your mom could, and your dad could, you'd trade places with Nick in a heartbeat, and wouldn't hesitate for a second. I feel the same way. But as lame as it sounds-and it is lame-it was Nick's time, just as it was my father's time during the War."

The sobbing had left her as quickly as it had come, but her face was still as fragile as ice. "Deep down, Lee, I know that. I really do", she grabbed his hand, "but I loved Nicholas with every fiber of my being. There's this huge, gaping hole in my heart and my soul now. And it's cutting so deep, that I don't know if it will ever heal."

Lee was honest with her. "Kara, it will  _never_ fully heal. It never fully healed after my dad died in the War", and he then briefly smiled, "and that's actually good."

She looked confused and a bit angry at him for a moment. "How the hell is any of this good, for God's sake, Lee?"

"The events aren't good, but the fact that our heart and our souls never quite fully heal is a testament to our love and devotion, me to my father, you to Nick in this case", he looked straight ahead for a moment. "If our heart and our soul would fully heal after things like this", and her turned to look her in the eyes, "then the person we lost really wasn't as important to us as we want to believe."

Kara looked startled for a moment as if an Epiphany of sorts had struck her. She had never seen it from that point of view. She knew the unbearable pain would be there for a long, long time, but that it would subside. And Lee was right-she hoped it never would. That way, she would carry a part of her brother in her own heart and soul til she passed from this existence.

Kara moved toward Lee's face. Throughout their tumultuous, sometimes happy, sometimes crazy, sometimes stormy relationship, something had always bound them together. The had made love on more than a few occasions in their confused youth, but they were both past that.

Kara had certainly not been a virgin since her adoption. She had had a few casual boyfriends, but not the revolving bedroom door like she had on  _Galactica._ She had dedicated herself to life in UED and to her family, and not much else.

But they would always be close, Lee and Kara, and some of that affection would linger until they were finished with this life.

She leaned in, and kissed Lee tenderly on the lips, then looked at him. "I do love you, Lee Adama, and I always have."

Lee smiled warmly. "And I have always loved you, Kara Thrace. It's moments like this, painful as they are when we realize how much we mean to each other."

She smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. "So saw we all, Lee."

 

* * *

 

The families of Richard Londhal and Annabel Marisio had delayed the funerals for their loved ones until the fate of their shipmate, Nicholas Bond, had been known. Richard had a wife, Brenda, and two children, Corbin, who was ten and Caryn, who was eight. Annabel's parents, Joaquin and Lizbeth, were with the fleet, stationed onboard the  _Albert Einstein._ All of them had been devastated that Nicholas Bond had not made it.

The Bond's, even during their own vigil for their son and brother, had kept in close contact with the other families, and demanded that they get the same attention as the Governor and his family. Judith had spent many hours with Brenda Londhal, trying to help the younger woman cope with the loss of her husband. Abby and Justin had also spent significant time with the Marisio's. Now, they were all united in a shared grief.

Justin Bond was sitting in his office two days after Nick's death. Despite his grief, he had work to do, especially following up on his recommendations that the next fleet be expanded. It would be about ninety days from the time he sent the recommendations to UED on Earth to receive their formal reply, but he had to act as if everything was almost instantaneous, to make sure that when he sent correspondence to Earth, they were continuous enough to keep the momentum going on the planning.

He had been going at it for about six hours. He had barely slept in the last five days, and he knew he had to get a nap, so he took his shoes off, lay down on the couch in his office, and was dozing in ten minutes.

….He saw a clear blue sky above him, with an ocean off to his right, the small of grass, a fresh breeze and salt water wafting through his nostrils.

Then the sky turned dark and threatening, just like it had on so many occasions, and he began to run...

He heard the voice in the distance,  _Just let me go!_  And he ran toward the noise. The voice became louder,  _Just let me go!_ His heart was pounding.  _Not again._

He came to the opening to where he had seen Kara's shattered Viper so many times, he came into the opening...Kara's Viper wasn't there.

He stopped dead in his track. He could still hear the voice saying those words, but now they came from behind him. He whirled around.

Behind him was a white Raptor, with Nicholas sitting on the wing, smiling at his father. Justin Bond ran to where he was.

"Dad", the apparition said. He responded, "Son?"

Nicholas Bond hopped off the Raptor. "Those dreams you had about Kara? I think you were looking for a way in the past to keep her from going through what she did."

Justin Bond couldn't speak.

"I understand it now, dad. It's so clear", the image of Captain Bond looked around the now-clear sky. "Parents have to let their children go eventually to face whatever is their destiny. Kara's was with that Viper on Cylon Earth. Mine?", he smiled. "Mine was to finish this part of my journey where I did. There are some things we can't change, dad."

"But son..." Justin Bond faltered.

"You just have to let me go, Dad", he said walking up to his father. "It isn't easy-it isn't easy for me to let go of you, mom, my sisters, Natalia, but I have to, and you have to."

"I love you, Nicholas", the Governor sobbed, "I always have. I always will."

"I love you dad", Nick smiled, "even as I take this next step in my journey, wherever that may lead. I will carry you in my soul forever." Nick kissed his father on the cheek, turned and began to walk away, "Just smile when you think about me, dad", and turned away again, and faded away...

Justin Bond woke up, not in a sweat of terror, as he had with so many nightmares about Kara. He was silent for a moment, trying to comprehend what he had seen. Then the uncontrollable sobs started, racking his shoulders in grief and anguish. He had held it together for his family. Now, this was his time to let the grief out.

 

* * *

 

Natalia's secret about her relationship with Nicholas had finally become public, as had their hasty marriage. He colleagues in the hangar and throughout the ship came to her de, and had given her their own love and support. Despite the unbearable loss of her Husband, she had renewed strength from the outpouring from the ship.

But she had a mission that she wanted to accomplish. It had begun shortly after Nicholas had succumbed, and it had driven her since then. She went about the ship, asking for the support and love from the crew one more time, but not for herself.

She had a debt of honor to pay back. And she intended to do so.

 

* * *

 

IX

 

 **Four days after Nicholas Bond's death** , a memorial service was to be held in the gargantuan maintenance hangar aboard the  _William Adama._ Dignitaries from all over the fleet would attend. About five thousand would be there to render honors to Richard Londhal, Annabel Marisio, and Nicholas Bond. Among those present were General Grayson, Colonel Otter, Gaius and Caprica Baltar, Blythe Chedra, General Trevor, and the new CAG of the fleet, Captain Cory Mathers.

The three caskets were brought in and laid in repose in front of the speakers' podium. Two flags were draped on each: half was covered with the UED Flag, and half with the flag of the nations' that the three deceased were from: Richard Londhal from Canada, Annabel Marisio from Venezuela, and Nick Bond from the United States. The National Anthem for all three nations were played.

Lee spoke first, but kept it short. "We honor our fallen comrades now and from this day forward. They died doing what they loved, and in trying to establish something they all believed in devoutly. We are poorer for having lost three incredible people; but our lives are richer for having had them in our midst. To honor their passing, I have promoted all three posthumously: Richard Londhal and Annabel Marisio to the Rank of Captain, and Nicholas Bond to the rank of Commander."

No applause greeted the end of his speech. He sat down silently.

Justin and Judith had asked Kara to give the Eulogy for her brother. After her talk with Lee, she had done so without hesitation.

"Years ago, when I was adopted by this amazing family", she said, her voice quivering with emotion, but with pride radiating from her face, "we made a commitment to always be there for each other. Up until the other day, I was wallowing in some self-pity because I felt I had failed to protect my brother as I always had promised. I kept saying to myself, 'If only I had been there ten seconds sooner...'", she paused to gather herself.

"The other day, I sat down with a dear friend", she said, smiling at Lee Adama. "He reminded me that he had felt the same when a loved one of his had died under similar circumstances. He too punished himself for his apparent failure. He reminded me that Fate-something that I believe in fiercely-can cut both ways. It can give, and it can take away. Fate gave me my amazing family; fate took my beautiful brother away from us. Fate doesn't play favorites."

She looked at her parents. "And yet, after Nick woke up when he was back aboard this ship, he  _thanked_  me. He told me that I had  _saved_  him", her voice shook at the pain in her soul. "I didn't understand that then, but I do now.

"I loved my littler brother more than life itself; I would gladly have traded places with him so that he could be here today. I will miss him every day of my life, and the hole that is in my heart and soul with his passing will never be filled. Today I rededicate myself to my mother, father, to Abby, to Brett and to my new sister Natalia. We will overcome this as we've always overcome obstacles-together, as a united family.

"To Brenda, Corbin and Caryn", she said, smiling warmly at Rick's widow and children, then looking over to Annibel's parents, "Joaquin and Lizbeth", her smile continuing. "On behalf of my father, mother and my siblings, I am so very sorry for your loss. I tell you with all certainty that your loved ones will not be forgotten by us. As the Bond family is accustomed to doing, we want you to consider yourselves part of our family from now on. Family always gets through tough times together, and you have our love and support now and for all time. We are with you. We are family."

Kara looked down for a moment, collecting her final thoughts, then she gazed out at those in attendance.

"I will keep my brother, and Richard and Annibel in my thoughts, prayers, in my heart and my soul all the days of my life. All of us will honor them with every breath we take, and I pray we live lives that are worthy of their memory. My heart-all of our hearts-are shattered at this moment, and it seems, right now, that we will never get through the pain. But if we're all true to each other, and dedicate ourselves to the mission for our collective humanity and its future, Nick, Richard and Annibel will have not died in vain."

Kara left the podium, saluted before the caskets of Captains Londhal and Marisio, then moved in front of her brother's casket. She approached it, bent over and kissed it as her body racked with audible sobs, not wanting to leave her brother's casket. Almost everyone in the hangar closed their eyes in grief at the sight.

She collected herself, took a step back, came to attention, and snapped off the finest salute she had ever delivered, holding it for a few extra, painful moments. Starbuck finally headed back to her family with tear stains on her cheeks, her eyes read, and a heart that was shattered.

Before a final salute was rendered, Lee Adama unexpectedly walked to the podium again.

"Before we render final honors to our comrades, I would like to invite a special guest to the podium for some brief words." Lee nodded at Natalia.

She strode forward, head held high, approaching the podium. She had accomplished the mission she had set out to do after Nick died. Lee knew about it; Kara, Brett and Abby knew about it. Most of the enlisted personnel and many officers now knew about it. Justin and Judith Bond did not.

She began as the room was dead silent.

"My name is Ensign Natalia Bond", she said proudly, looking directly at her new family, who beamed back at her, even as they were gripped with grief. "For a long time Nicholas and I had dated without telling anyone Maybe we didn't tell anyone because he was an American I am a Russian." The brief levity made everyone laugh softly.

"After the Raptor carrying Nicholas, Richard and Annabel was shot down, I finally told my boss, Captain Wimbusi, of our relationship. I just couldn't bear to be alone in my grief. She told Admiral Adama, and he told Nicholas' mother and his sister Abby. I confided to them of my relationship with Nicholas.

"The next day, Governor Bond and Admiral Thrace-Bond were informed. And something miraculous happened", she said beaming at her new family. "They accepted me as their daughter and sister, without question, without reservation. Even though none of us knew of Nicholas' fate and they had only met me that day they rallied to  _me,_ in the midst of  _their_ grief, to support and comfort  _me_."

The room was silent.

"After my remarkable new sister Kara rescued Nick, and got him back on the  _Adama,_ and after we learned that Nicholas would not survive, I asked him to marry me. Kara married us, right then and there.

"And something else extraordinary happened. As the vows were being read, Judith Bond approached her son", her voice began to break, "she took off her wedding ring that she had worn on her finger for more than forty years, and gave it to Nick to give to me", she was weeping now. "She said it was our wedding present."

The room became charged with an incredible amount of emotion as the story became public. "Governor Bond stepped forward, pulled off his ring, gave it to me, and I gave it to Nick. Before he died, we put it on his Dog Tags."

People could be heard sobbing throughout the hangar. Natalia paused for about two minutes, trying to rein in her emotions. She finally spoke again, her voice strong and steady.

"It was the most selfless gesture I have ever witnessed. And from that moment on, I accepted the First Lady and The Governor as what they are to me, now: Mama and Papa Bond-my parents." She paused again.

"I owe you a debt of gratitude that cannot be repaid in this or any lifetime. But I will try right now."

She nodded at Abby Bond, who stood up, tears in her own eyes, and walked toward Natalie. The two sisters embraced and kissed each other-then turned and headed towards Justin and Judith Bond.

"Mama and Papa", she looked down at them. "Mother, and Father, you honored Nicholas and me with that incredible gift of your wedding rings. It only fitting I pay you back."

She had recruited her friends and colleagues to go through the ships, to find some gold that could be melted down. On the  _Carl Sagan,_ they had found a craftsman who had made jewelry for years.

Abby produced two ring boxes and handed them to Natalie. She looked at her mother-in-law. "Mama, you told me that family isn't about rings, or wedding certificates, but is about cherishing one another and being there for the ones we love. You and Papa unconditionally accepted me in the lowest moment of my life. You gave me a gift of a new family-and this beautiful ring that I will cherish forever. Now, I give you a gift in return."

The two older Bonds had figured out what was coming next, and they were thunderstruck. Even before Natalie opened the boxes, Judith Bond had tears streaming down her face. The Governor wasn't much better off.

Natalie opened the box, one for her Mama and one for her Papa. Inside were brilliant gold wedding bands. Kara and Abby had found out the ring sizes in casual conversation after Nick's death. The were both beaming at their parents, with radiant smiles on their faces.

Natalia handed one box to her mother; the other to her father. Her mother had the ring that would go on her husband's finger, and Justin Bond had his wife's new ring. They looked at each other, the Governor slipping the band on his wife's finger, then Judith slipping the other one on her husband's finger. They fit perfectly.

Judith surged to her feet and hugged her daughter-in-law with an intensity that overwhelmed her senses, and Justin Bond followed, wrapping Natalia to his chest, crying without shame.

The entire room erupted in loud, overwhelming applause and cheers.

 

* * *

 

After a few minutes, Lee stepped to the podium one last time. "Today, we commit the bodies of Captain Richard Londhal, Captain Annabel Marisio, and Commander Nicholas Bond, to the vacuum of space. We move forward with our mission, honoring them with every breath we take. They are not, nor will they ever be orgotten."

The Color Guard, carrying the flag of the UED, Canada, Venezuela and the United States took position in front of the casket. To one side, was an Honor Guard of seven Marines, with rifles. One of them was Captain Thomas Dalbott.

"Honor Guard, Ten-Hut!", Admiral Adama said crisply. The Guard stood to. Three times, Admiral Adama commanded. "Ready! Aim! Fire!" And three times the seven Marines fired for the traditional twenty-one gun salute.

Then the flags came to full mast. "Attention On Deck", Lee bellowed, "All Hands, render honors to Captain Thomas Londhal, Captain Annabel Marisio, and Commander Nicholas Bond...and salute."

Caprica sang "Amazing Grace", and then "Taps" was played. The remains of the three UED officers were jettisoned into space.

 

* * *

 

X

 

A Week Later

 **With things calming down,**  and the families of the fallen soldiers adjusting to a new normal in their lives, Justin Bond, Judy Bond and Kara went back to the half of The Fleet on the other side of the System. Life for them would go on. It would never be the same, they knew, but they had to press forward. They didn't want Nick's death, and that of his two comrades, to be for nothing.

They had flown together as they had when the crisis broke, and returned to the  _Laura Roslin._ The Governor and Admiral wanted to go to CIC to get a brief updated from Commander Carrico, and then the Governor and Mrs. Bond would head back to the _King_.

Upon landing, and rolling in to the hangar bay, they were met by an extraordinary sight: the entire hangar crew was standing at attention and in formation. When they came to a stop, and the hatch opened, the troops lined up on either side of the front of the wing. The Chief of the Ship called out loudly. "Attention On Deck! Governor Of The Fleet, Admiral Of The Fleet, First Lady of the Fleet, arriving!"  Everyone saluted at once. Justin Bond helped Judy and Kara off the wing, and they began walking through the cordon aligned on either side of them, obviously making a path for them to follow. No one said a word.

The three Bond's thought that would be the extent of it. They were wrong.

As they headed into the interior of the ship and towards CIC, the corridors were still lined on both sides, with personnel at stiff attention and saluting as they went by. All three Bond's kept their composure, clearly moved and honored by this gesture. The entire five-minute walk to CIC was lined with personnel from the  _Laura Roslin,_ many of them, both men and women, with tears coming down their cheeks.

As they approached the door to the Bridge and CIC, they heard Chase Carrico command the crew there. "Attention!", he hollered. "Governor Of The Fleet, Admiral Of The Fleet, First Lady of The Fleet on deck!", and the CIC came to their feet, saluting the three arrivals. Again, no one said a word. Many of the CIC, like the others who had lined the corridors, had tears coming down their faces, but kept their salutes.

Chase Carrico was at rigid attention when his Bosses approached. Again, no words were said. Finally Admiral Thrace-Bond looked around, snapped her own salute in every direction, ended her salute, and everyone came at ease. Except for the XO, who remained at attention. She looked directly at him, and gave him the finest salute she could, and then he, too, was at ease.

Kara walked up to him, and Chase thought she was going to shake his hand. Instead, she gave him a silent, warm hug, which broke the demeanor of herself and her XO.

"Welcome home, Admiral", Chase said to his Boss and good friend. "I'm so sorry, Kara."

She kept the embrace an extra beat or two, then stepped back. "Thank you, Chase. I'll never forget this."

Chase went up to the Governor, saluted him, and Justin Bond embraced him. By protocol, he didn't have to salute Judith Bond, but he saved perhaps his finest salute for her, which made her mouth quiver in grief and tears appear again.

"Mrs. Bond, I would like to extend to you, and to the Governor, the heartfelt condolences of the entire crew of the  _Roslin",_ Chase now had tears on his cheek, "We are heartbroken at the loss of your son, and you will always have our undying love and support whenever you need it."

She hugged the XO, and kissed him on the cheek.

Kara looked around her Bridge, then finally spoke. "I thank all of your for the love and respect you've shown my parents and I today. It means a lot to me. And it shows to me again that you are the finest group of people in The Fleet."

One by one, the men and women of the CIC came up and hugged their Admiral and the Governor and Mrs. Bond. Her family had extended again, this time to the honorable crew she led, and she knew they'd get through this.

Kara walked up to Ensign Chatham, who had stopped her just before she had left the  _Roslin_ after learning that Nick had been shot down. She saluted her Admiral, but was crying almost uncontrollably.

Kara wrapped her up in her arms, both a sense of grief and joy at that moment. "It's OK, Ensign" she whispered to the young woman, "there's no shame in letting it out."

"Sir, I promised you we'd get your brother back and......I'm so sorry."

"Ensign", Kara said, looking directly at her young charge, "you told me we'd get him home. And we did.  _That,_ in then end, is what counts."

"Thank you, sir", she said, regaining some semblance of control. "He's in my thoughts and prayers every day, and I'm honored to serve with his sister."  She saluted her Admiral one more time. Kara kissed the Ensign on the forehead.

 

* * *

 

Two weeks later, Abby Bond-Creider and Natalie Bond boarded a Raptor to visit their parents and their sister on the other side of The Fleet. The Governor and Judy had made sure that they and their three daughters and Brett could get together every few weeks, simply to support one another. Admiral Adama had told them on their departure a week after the funeral that he would make sure that Abby, Natalia, as well as Captain Londhal's widow and children, and Captain Marisio's parents were looked after as much as possible.

The two women landed on the  _Martin Luther King, Jr._  and headed to their parents' suite. Their parents  embraced all three of them through both smiles and tears.  

Kara came off-duty shortly after and took a quick hop from her ship to her father and mother's ship. When Kara arrived her two sisters rushed to meet her and they cried again-not in the desperate manner that they had weeks ago, but simply to show their love for one another.

Natalia was adjusting to a life without Nicholas as best she could, trying to turn her pain into positives through her work and her new family.

She and her colleagues in the maintenance hanger had discovered a new-found sense of purpose and camaraderie in the wake of the death of the three Officers. It filled a large void that still occupied her soul and her heart.

Admiral Adama had also promised Natalie  that she would transfer to the  _Roslin_ to be closer to her new family, and was working on getting Abby aboard one of the DSE's assigned with the  _Roslin,_ with a swap of Chief Medical Officers. He wanted his almost-family to be close to one another during this period of adjustment. He owed them no less.

They sat down to a meal that had been prepared especially for them by the mess staff, and they began to catch up with each other.

"Lee has the entire force on the surface of Caprica", the Governor informed them. "The people in other regions of the planet have found out about our force, and we're seeing the resumption of something approaching normalcy around Delphi an Phoebus."

"So we've basically isolated this 'Kingdom', whatever the hell it is?", Abby said with disgust.

"We have a 24/7 patrol ringing the mountain range", Kara said, having read the same report as her father, "those bastards aren't going anywhere."

"I know the tempo of Raptors and Falcons have increased", Natalia Bond added, "we're working our tails off on the birds. We are pretty much working on a wartime basis right now to get all the birds in shape."

"We're going to have to keep it that way until the next fleet arrives", Justin Bond nodded at his daughter-in-law. "I won't hear back from UED for at least another four weeks on my recommendations, but I have freedom of movement out here, and the force stays."

"Lee has told me that Doctor Salvador from the  _Gandhi_  has agreed to swap assignments with me", Abby Bond said with a smile. "It'll still take a few weeks, as he's finishing up some research work, but I should be over there by the middle of next month."

"What about Brett's job?" Kara inquired.

"I'm going to leave the Vice-Chair in charge of the other side of the fleet, Kara", Brett responded. "I'll still get back there, but we both need to be over here for now."

"That sounds good", his father-in-law said with a nod. "I'll have to go to the  _Gandhi_ and thank Doctor Salvador before the change."

Judith Bond hadn't spoken up yet. She had been very quiet since Nick had passed. She was adjusting, but as a mother it was taking her more time. "It'll be nice having all four of you on this side of The Fleet for the remainder of the mission", she said quietly. "I know it's only been a few weeks, but it hasn't been easy, Abby, with you, Brett and Natalie so far away."

"I know it has, Mama", Natalie said warmly. "My colleagues have really helped me adjust to things on the _Adama_."

"I know, honey", Judy said, "but it's been tough on your mother-in-law", she smiled at her daughter-in-law.

"You're not pulling our leg, Natalie?", Justin Bond said with a wink.

"Absolutely not, Papa!", she said with a laugh. "Things have been going well! I swear on my honor!", everyone chuckled.

A few moments later, she again spoke up. "Although I've been under the weather a little lately", she said with a frown.

Her sister Kara looked at her with some concern. "You don't think it's anything serious, Natalie, do you?".

"I don't think so, Kara." A smile began to light up her face, "such things are normal when a woman is pregnant..."

The room went still.

Naturally, Judith Bond spoke first, sputtering out her words. "When you...when you're  _pregnant?"_ Everyone else had their jaws firmly planted on the floor.

"Yes, Mama", Natalia Bond beamed. "I'm about two months along."

Pandemonium ensued.

Judith Bond jumped up, raced around the table and hugged her daughter-in-law. "You're  _pregnant_!", and she began laughing as if she had lost her mind. "You're _PREGNANT_!"

Kara reached her next, with Abby in her wake. "Natalie!", Kara cried, "Oh my frackin' God!" Everyone laughed loudly as Kara swept her new sister in a monstrous hug, and they whirled around like school girls.

Abby then grabbed both her sisters. "I always knew Nick had it in him", which made them all explode with laughter again. "Well, you know what I mean", she said, turning red.

The four Bond women continued to celebrate happily. Brett looked on amused and happy at the commotion. Governor Bond was gripped by conflicting emotions. He was overjoyed that another Bond would soon be part of the Universe, but the hurt that his son would never know his child was almost too much to bear.

Natalie looked over at the Governor. "Papa, are you not happy?", she said, still not understanding the nuances of her father's demeanor and facial expressions.

Justin Bond got up, slowly shaking his head, and walking toward the young women. He bent down, kissed Natalie on the cheek, and hugged her tightly. "I'm overjoyed, Natalie. You don't know how happy I am." Kara watched her father hug Natalie, and she could tell that Natalie felt the same sense of contentment that she had first had-and still had-when being held by this incredible man. Her father looked at her and winked, and she beamed at him proudly.

"But you didn't look happy, Papa?", Natalie said, "I was worried."

"Honey", he said looking down at her, and putting a hand through her hair, "you've just got to learn your Old Man's moods, that's all. This is one of the most wonderful moments in my life, honey." He took a breath, "but still..."

Now Natalia comforted him, taking his hand in hers, "Papa...dad", she smiled, "I understand. I miss him too. But to know that he lives within me-in my heart, in my soul, and now within my womb, means he'll be with us in a real, tangible way", she then kissed him on the cheek, "and she or he will have a wonderful _ded_ and _babushka_ to teach them about their father."  She realized she had spoken the Russian name for Granddad and Grandma. "Uh, that means Grandfather and Grandmother", and they all smiled warmly at her.

They only had water and soft drinks for this dinner, but Justin Bond had them pick up their glasses and join each other in a circle near one end of the table.

"May I propose a toast: to our beautiful daughter Natalia. Honey, may you be healthy and strong during your pregnancy" They all raised their glasses. Governor Bond hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

"And....to Nicholas Bond", he said unevenly. "Son, you may be gone, but your presence has been renewed as we prepare to welcome you child into the Universe. You did good, kid."

"Hear hear!", and they clinked their glasses together, smiling this time, not with tears.

 

* * *

 

Four Weeks Later

Life was getting back to normal on both halves of The Fleet. Admiral Adama was making good his commitment to put a force of ten thousand on the ground near Caprica City to check the lunatic up in the Mountains. Patrols swept all four sides of where the group was holed up, to keep them from any more raids to take people as slaves.

The quarantine was starting to work. Word of the UED force spread across the planet, and men who had been in hiding to keep from being captured began to emerge, some volunteering for service to fight if it came to that. More people came to Caprica City. The military and the citizens even began cleaning up the debris that had littered the city for thirty years. It was a positive step, but Lee knew this wasn't the end of this confrontation.

The remaining forces in that half of The Fleet had moved on to Gemenon, but with the drain of resources for the garrison on Caprica, Lee had to scale back the scouting of that planet, as he would the rest on his side of the operation. But Gemenon, unlike Caprica had remained peaceful, and the people there had tried to keep civilization thriving as much as they could.

On the other side of the System, the scouts had been placed on Canceron, and were reporting back every day on the situation there. It was still calm, but some undercover units reported that there were rumblings in the streets of Hades about the imminent and permanent arrival of a new Colonial Government. But there was no violence.

The ice world of Aquaria had been reconnoitered, which hadn't taken a lot of time. Only twenty-five thousand had lived there before The Holocaust. It had been bypassed by The Cylons during the War, but without contact with the rest of The Colonies, there were only about ten thousand people left there now. Kara and Caparica had met with the government entity on the planet, and there was talk of abandoning the planet altogether to concentrate the population elsewhere. The government there was open to such a move, but negotiations were still proceeding.

Kara's half of The Fleet had headed to Helios Gamma and was currently scouting Sagitteron. The world that had been religiously orthodox before the war remained so, but no as militantly as before. The Holocaust had brought a new reality for the survivors, and they had found the need to develop ways to keep the population healthy, and that meant discovering rudimentary medicines and health care. They were still suspicious of modern medicine and technology, but were open to getting medical care for the fleet.

But the whole tenor of this first mission had been irrevocably altered by events on Caprica. The belief by many that this would be easy had been removed with the death of the three officers, including the CAG, at Caprica. A new determination had surfaced in The Fleet to succeed in this mission. They awaited word from Earth about the makeup of the next fleet.

 

* * *

 

XI

Three Weeks Later, UED Headquarters, San Diego, California

 **Admiral Louis Hoshi,**  C-in-C of United Earth Defense needed to make his final decisions on Governor Bond's recommendations that had come from The Colonies. He needed to do so quickly. The new fleet would sail in eleven months.

The news of the violence on Caprica, and the death of the  _Adama's_ CAG, Nicholas Bond, had stunned the entire planet. What made it worse was the respect and admiration that the Governor and his family still enjoyed on Earth. Every nation on Earth had lowered their flags to half-mast in honor of the three fallen soldiers, and instituted a period of mourning. It made many, including Louis Hoshi, question what future missions would look like.

A few days after that shocking news, had come the astounding recommendations from Governor Bond, Admiral Adama and Admiral Thrace-Bond. It had been like dynamite in his hands when he first read it. The upheaval it had caused at Headquarters had been profound. As much respect as Justin Bond had throughout UED, which quite literally owed its very existence to the man, there had been heated arguments on his suggestions to add four _Terran Class_ Battlestars and another eight DSE's to the fleet that would soon sail. Hoshi couldn't imagine over-ruling the Command Authority on the spot, but he had faced more resistance than he had bargained for.

He had come to the decision to fully support the recommendations of his Civilian and military commanders on the scene. But he also made some important command decisions as well.

 

* * *

 

Two days later, Admiral Karl Agathon came to UED Headquarters. His ship, the Battlestar  _Winston Churchill_ had been on picket duty in the outer reaches of the Solar System. Hoshi had asked for his presence, and Helo had hopped in a Raptor and headed towards Earth.

"Reporting as ordered, Sir", Helo saluted The Boss. Hoshi had a light lunch and drinks arranged and they made small talk while eating. After that, they got down to business.

"I'm going to back Justin Bond's recommendations completely, Karl".

Agathon whistled. "Doubling The Fleet", Helo said shaking his head. "That thing on Caprica must have really hit them like a ton of bricks, Louis."

"That's the sense I get, from the Governor, from Lee and from Kara."

"We both know Governor Bond well, Admiral", Karl continued, "and the man is no War Hawk. He's been in combat, but it's the last thing he wants. I think that gives more credence to this recommendation."

"Agreed, Helo", Hoshi nodded, "Some of the brass believe he's over-reacting because his son was killed on Caprica, but I don't read it that way. I've never known the man to make any decision based on personal feelings."

Karl was quiet before responding. "Nick was a great guy, Louis", he said sadly "The family must be going through hell right now."

"I can't even begin to imagine losing a child, Karl", Hoshi said with rare emotion. "I almost cried when I learned about his death and the other two Officers.'

Karl changed gears a bit, or else he would tear up. "How about on the other side of the System?"

"Canceron-more precisely, Hades is apparently wary of our new presence, but according to General Trevor and Captain Mathers, everyone is calm. Admiral Baltar was considering a garrison there, but she let Governor Bond know that with a division already committed to Caprica, they just can't spare the manpower."

"Caprica made the call?", Karl said in surprise. "Why didn't Kara make the call?"

"When word came down that Nick's Raptor was down, the Governor, Judith  and Kara went over to that side of the fleet. Chase Carrico remained in titular control of that half of the fleet, but Governor Bond gave Caprica command if a crisis arose. So Caprica made the recommendation to keep a scouting unit there, nothing more, and Justin backed her completely."

"So Kara stayed with the  _Adama_  that whole time?"

"Affirmative, Karl", Hoshi confirmed. "In fact, Kara had taken off her Admiral's bars and put herself under the acting CAG during the SAR", then Louis became quite somber. "She was the one who got her brother off the surface. According to her report, she was about fifteen feet from landing when her brother was shot-and she saw the whole thing."

That jolted Karl to his very core. "Good God", he said quietly, "I can't...", he paused to keep his composure, thinking about his long-time friend. "I can't imagine...having to witness her brother being gunned down when she was that close to getting him out..."

The two men remained silent for a moment. Then Louis remembered some good news. "Oh, by the way, apparently Nick was dating an Ensign who worked in the hangar, and just before Nick passed away, Kara married them."

Karl's face lit up, despite his own grief at losing his former CAG. "You're kidding? That's wonderful. Any idea who she is?"

"I pulled up her file, her maiden name was Natalia Schrevrenko, originally from Russia. He was only alive for a few hours as a married man, but from what Justin told me, Nick died much more peacefully because of the wedding."

"I'll have to send a note to the family-all of them-to let them know I'm thinking about them." Helo would do that as soon as the meeting ended.

Louis turned back to Fleet business again. "I've made some command decisions as well, Karl, to get The Fleet ready for the voyage." He pulled pulled out a piece of paper with a printout of his upcoming orders. "I will be sending the Four _Terran's_ and extra DSE's, per the Governor's request." Karl nodded his approval.

"I've also submitted to the U.N a recommendation to build at least another thirty  _Terran Class_ Battlestars."

" _Thirty?"_ , Karl echoed The Boss.

Louis again nodded ".The idea to send only the  _Colonial's_ to The Colonies was sound, but we need to rethink that", he looked up at Helo. "Have you read up on the Battle of The Pacific between the United State and Japan in World War II, and the U.S carrier program?"

Karl instantly caught on. Just about everyone at UED had learned about Earth Naval tactics after The Fleet's arrival. They had learned a few things from their brethren. "You want to use the  _Terran's_ like the Americans used their Pocket Aircraft Carriers in the war, don't you: as support for the big ships?"

Louis smiled at his friend. "I knew you were smarter than you looked, Karl", which made Helo chuckle. "That's exactly what we're going to do. UED has bought into the concept, and the U.N seems to be onboard."

"Any other changes, sir?"

Louis took a breath. "Yes, I'm shuffling commands among the Battlestars that will sail." He looked down at his paper. "Karl, I'm assigning you to Command the  _Libran."_

Helo almost fell off his chair. "Me, sir?"  _Christ, Athena is going to love this news,_ he thought sarcastically. "May I ask why?"

"Admiral Salvador is a capable Officer, but I want someone who has seen combat on a Battlestar, and knows the Colonies. I have nothing against our Admirals from Earth, and I've made that clear, but the new situation there requires the change."

Like a good soldier, Karl adjusted quickly. "I will prepare to make the transfer to the  _Libran_  once I get back onboard the  _Churchill."_

"The  _Caprica_  is still the Flagship, but I'm reassigning Admiral Fletcher to take one of the  _Terran's_ that will sail."

Karl let out another whistle. "Fletcher's a first-rate Officer, Louis", he reminded the C-in-C.

"He is, Karl, but I'm making the move for the same reason I'm putting you on the  _Libran_."

"Who the hell else could fit that bill for command of the _Caprica_?", Karl asked, a bit bewildered.

"Me, Karl", he looked straight at the man. "I have tendered my resignation, and have asked for, and been granted Command of The Fleet that will sail."

 _Just your average, run-of-the-mill meeting,_ Helo thought sardonically to himself.

"Any other moves, sir?"

"Not major, Karl, but I'd like your thoughts on another idea the Brass and I have been knocking around for The Fleet."

 

* * *

 

**_E _pilogue__ **

 

Fifty Days Later

 **Aboard the DSE** _ **Martin Luther King, Jr**_ , Governor Bond was going through a normal day: meeting with the Quorum, which always made for interesting gossip with his wife; visiting one of the Raptor Carriers in his half of The Fleet, then dinner with his wife that evening.

He was back in his office after the Raptor visit, with dinner about an hour away. He was going over some legislation dealing with different issues, when the phone on his computer chirped. It was Caprica.

"Yes, Admiral, what can I do for you?" He said with a smile on his face.

"Governor", she replied excitedly, "Signals is getting a transmission from Earth. It's for your eyes only, but it's from Admiral Hoshi."

"Thinking it's the answer to my recommendations, Caprica?"

"I hope to hell it is", he could hear her smile. "I hate having to wait so long for an answer", which made her Governor chuckle.

"Me, too, Admiral. Send it to my computer here and I'll look at it immediately." Within thirty seconds, the correspondence from Hoshi was on his screen.

He began to read it. Louis began with sending his condolences to his family and the other two on the loss of their loved ones. The shock was gone now, but the melancholy still remained.

He whistled at the next news. "Damn, they're going to build more  _Terran's"_   he said, arching his eyes. That had not been part of his recommendations.

He scanned further. Louis had agreed to his requests on augmenting the fleet. The Governor's raised his eyebrows when he read that Karl Agathon and Louis himself were going to lead The Fleet.  _They're taking this damned seriously_.

Louis had added other sundry items, but no other surprises in the correspondence. The Governor got to the last few paragraphs.

As he scanned it, he had to read it twice, shaking his head to make sure he had read it correctly. It astounded him.

A radiant smile lit up his face. He immediately sent the last paragraph to Judy, Kara, Abby, Brett, and Natalie.

 

* * *

 

Life for Starbuck had turned to some semblance of a routine after the initial shock of her brother's shoot-down and subsequent death. The pain was still close to the surface, and in her private moments, she sometimes fell apart thinking of Nick. Those episodes were becoming fewer and farther between as the days passed.

She had thrown herself headlong into the work on Sagitteron and the scouting mission there. This planet was much more like Aerilon insofar as their scouting went, with none of the drama of Canceron or Caprica. She saw no problems that would adversely affect the next fleet when it arrived. The initial scouting of Libran and Scorpia were next, and then for the rest of the Mission, both halves of the fleet would begin initiating more in-depth study of each of the planets. By the time they turned back for Earth in three years, they would have a better idea of the long-term game plan for the future of The Colonies.

"XO", she turned to Chase Carrico, "have all department heads meet me in the pilot ready-room at 1100 this morning. I want full reports from them before we depart for Libran."

"Aye, Admiral", Rabbit replied, and turned to make the arrangements.

"Helm, new course 142 mark 086, take us into higher orbit in prep for departure from Sagitteron."

"Aye sir, 142 mark 086 heading into higher synchronous", Helm replied smoothly. As the order was being executed, Signals alerted the Admiral. "Sir, incoming message from Governor Bond. No priority on it", the Officer was scanning the header on the message, "but the Governor wants you to read it aloud here on the bridge."

"That's odd", Kara blinked, "even for my Old Man", she smiled when she said that, making a few people laugh. "OK, let's have it."  _I'm reading the damn thing to myself first_ , she said sardonically, knowing her father's sense of humor.

Chase was watching The Boss, waiting for her to perhaps laugh at something her dad at put in the message.

She didn't.

Instead, he saw her face become emotional, as she continued reading, with an astonished look on her face. When she finished, she closed her eyes, bowed her head for a moment, and then a warm smile lit up her face.

She looked at the crew. "May I have everyone's attention for a few moment?", the entire CIC turned to her at once, "I want to read part of the contents from the message the Governor sent me. He recently received a communique from Admiral Hoshi in San Diego about the makeup of the next fleet. And I want to share this with all of you. These are the Admiral's words, not the Governor's."

Everyone knew something big was coming, simply by the look on The Boss's face. She began.

"I have, therefore, agreed, Governor, to wholeheartedly endorse your proposals, and have received the approval from the United Nations as well. I have also made some decisions regarding command of the vessels that will sail, and will transmit them to you when they are finalized."

Kara didn't want to waver with the next piece of information, so she paused, and gathered herself before continuing. "I would also like to advise you that I've made a decision regarding the ships that will come your way. As you know, the last of the DSE's that will sail just finished their proving runs. They are the _Tolstoy_ and the  _Tecumseh._ However, with the events recently on Caprica, I have ordered them to be re-christened the  _Robert Londhal_ and the  _Annabel Marisio_ , in honor of our fallen comrades."

There were audible gasps of surprise and delight from the crew. She continued, her voice wavering with emotion.

"I also have decided to re-christen one of the  _Terran Class_ Battlestars that will head your way. I have directed that the  _John F. Kennedy_ be recommissioned as the...Battlestar  _Nicholas Bond."_

The room went silent, just about every jaw on the floor. Kara wasn't one of them. She beamed proudly, looking around at her crew.

Then, suddenly, cheers erupted in CIC, and everyone surged forward to hug Starbuck. She was engulfed in a sea of humanity.

_Continued in the next upcoming story._


End file.
